Fine Cooking (February 2013)
Forget endive.
Discard your red leaf.
And leave your radicchio in the cripser.
It's shaved raw vegetable salads that are very "on trend" right now in food magazines.
Over the last four months, Food & Wine (November), Bon Appétit (January), Martha Stewart Living (February) and now Fine Cooking (February) have all featured recipies for shaved salads that incorporate readily available cold weather produce -- think root vegetables, carrots, and winter squash.
The first time shaved salads really popped up on our radar was last summer, when Martha Stewart Living featured a Shaved-Squash Salad, and with it, featured a handheld Kyocera Mandoline that we couldn't resist purchasing ourselves.
Let's talk first about owning a handheld mandoline.
Technically, we've imposed a moratorium on purchasing new kitchen gadgets. We're out of space and we have more specific little kitchen gizmos than we know what to do with. Said moratorium gets broken occassionally, mostly when one of us buys a gadget without the other knowing. ("Who's at the door?" "Um, Amazon?")
Such was the case with the Kyocera Mandoline. We saw it in the magazine, Clay quickly justified spending the $23, and two days later, it was in our kitchen. We could rave on and on about this mandoline -- we even included it in our 2012 gift guide -- but this is what you need to know: It's tiny, lightweight, hangs or hides in a drawer very easily, is dishwasher safe, and it's darn easy to use. We reach for it many times a week, to slice all manner of vegetables.
Which brings us to this Shaved Rutabaga and Turnip Salad with Scallions.
We weren't really planning to make this dish, but we purchased too many rutabagas when we were making Morrocan Vegetable Soup. We weren't sure what to do with the excess. Though rutabaga would likely last forever in the cripser, we spied this recipe in Fine Cooking and thought we'd give it a whirl.
This recipe is part of a feature on shaved salads in the February issue. Along with this one, the recipe highlights three other shaved salad recipes.
As far as cold winter salads go, we thought this Shaved Rutabaga and Turnip salad was delicious. The rutabaga and turnip are both very earthy, but those flavors are well balanced by a dressing of rice vinegar, mustard and oil. Scallions give a bit of bite, while parsley lends brightness. We were dubious that the recipe was going to produce enough dressing for the root vegetables, but it turns out there's plenty -- the rutabaga and turnip really take on the flavors of the dressing.
We're happy we found this Shaved Rutabaga and Turnip Salad with Scallions. It's a nice jolt of something different at the dinner table.
Other Shaved Root Vegetable Salads:
- Shaved Root-Vegetable Remoulade (Food & Wine)
- Shaved Vegetable and Walnut Salad (Bon Appétit)
- Shaved-Butternut-and-Carrot Salad with Dates and Sunflower Seeds (Martha Stewart Living)
Shaved Rutabaga and Turnip Salad with Scallions
Fine Cooking (February 2013), recipe by Tamar Adler|
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Nutritional informationa available at FineCooking.com
(This photo: Scott Phillips for Fine Cooking)
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS:
1 small rutabaga (1 lb.)
2 medium turnips (about 10 oz. total)
1 Tbs. rice vinegar
1/4 tsp. Dijon mustard
Kosher salt
2 medium scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced on the diagonal (keep white and green parts separate)
3 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tbs. coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
DIRECTIONS
Trim the root and stem ends from the rutabaga, peel it, and cut it lengthwise into 1-inch-thick slabs. Trim and peel the turnips. Using the vegetable peeler, shave enough rutabaga and turnip to measure 2 cups of each.
In a medium bowl, stir together the vinegar, mustard, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Add the rutabaga, toss, and let sit for 15 minutes. Add the turnip and the white parts of the scallions, toss, and let sit for another 5 minutes. Add the olive oil, parsley, and the green parts of the scallions, toss gently, and serve.
