Another gorgeous summer Saturday and visit to the farmers market inspired me to throw together a light, beautiful shaved salad for lunch. By coincidence, I realized it includes red (radishes), orange (carrots), yellow (golden beets) and green (cucumber), so we’re going to call it a RAINBOW SALAD!
Just ignore the fact that we’re missing blue and purple 🙂 Here’s my non-cooking, non-recipe recipe!
The cukes, carrots and beets were actually in my latest Imperfect Produce box, and I picked up the radishes at the farmers market. I used one Persian (small seedless) cucumber, one carrot, one golden beet and three radishes, and this made enough for about four lunch-sized salads.
A handheld mandolin is the perfect tool for tackling these vegetables; since beets and carrots are hearty, it’s especially important to thinly slice them for this salad. This model (affiliate link) is inexpensive and the one I use.
After washing everything and peeling the carrot and beet (no need to peel the cucumber or radish), I used the first setting (thinnest) to slice up all the veggies.
For the vinaigrette, I used a mason jar – no measuring required, and just shake-shake-shake to emulsify. To it I added the juice of one lemon, about a tablespoon of dijon mustard, olive oil, salt, pepper and ground coriander.
Finally, to serve, I laid out the vegetables on a plate, sprinkled with some freshly torn cilantro leaves and flaky sea salt and finished with a spoonful of vinaigrette over the top.
This would be a very attractive salad to serve as a first course when entertaining, but you know what? I served it up this way just for myself – because we all deserve to eat something pretty every now and then! What do you do for yourself that makes you feel special?
Joe says
Looks good Annie!