Unbelievable root vegetable salad

method

This salad is a favorite of my good mate Pete Begg. He was inspired to make it when he lived in Italy, where each stall at the local market would offer its own seasonal salad mix. His favorite was an autumnal selection of peppery radishes, which are just made for salads; lovely earthy-sweet beetroots in different shades of orange and red, even some with stripes; the aromatic heart of a celery; sweet carrots; and some beautiful, crunchy, aniseedy-sweet fennel. Come spring and summer, a beautiful veggie salad can be made with baby asparagus, fava beans or small, sweet zucchini (which you can treat just like cucumbers: slice them thinly or cut them into long strips with a speed peeler).

All these vibrant flavors need a powerful dressing to bring them together, so Pete decided to flavor his with chilli and mint as they are very good friends – brilliant! Very finely slice or shave the beetroots and carrots, using good knife skills, a mandolin on a fine setting or, most easily, a speed peeler, until you have a pile of thin, wavy, crunchy slices. Place in a big mixing bowl. With a sharp knife, slice the celery heart and leaves, the radicchio, the radishes and the fennel as finely as you can and add to the bowl of root veg slices. Toss the root vegetables in the grilled chilli dressing, season carefully to taste, and serve sprinkled with the reserved fennel tops

serves:

ingredients

• 3 fresh beetroots (all different colors if possible), peeled
• 3 carrots, peeled 1 celery heart, with leaves
• 1⁄2 a small radicchio, washed and dried a bunch of radishes, topped and tailed
• 1 fennel bulb, herby tops reserved
• 1 x grilled chilli dressing recipe sea salt and freshly ground black pepper