Ingredients
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½ Kohlrabi
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½ (150 g) Fennel Bulb
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⅓ Cucumber
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5 French breakfast Radishes
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⅓ head Cauliflower
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2 teaspoons extra-virgin Olive Oil
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1 teaspoon Moscatel
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Sea Salt
Directions
The mandolin is an incredibly useful kitchen tool that transforms tough root veg and fibrous bulbs into fresh, crunchy salads in a matter of seconds. Indeed, whenever I look at a kohlrabi, fennel, cauliflower, cucumber or radish (whether it’s Japanese black, heirloom, watermelon, French breakfast or the totally normal but still excellent type) sitting unloved in my salad drawer, slicing it thinly is always one of the first options that springs to mind.
The vegetable types, quantities and ratios below are just a guide. Really, you should just use whatever veg you fancy or have to hand. But if you do make a mandolin salad like this one, which contains peppery radishes, anise from fennel, the cooling crunch of kohlrabi and cauliflower, and the juiciness of a cucumber, you’ll find it particularly suited to grilled oily fish like mackerel or a buttery pastry tart, or as a deceptively impressive salad as part of a summer buffet. Please use the safety guard. The time it takes to make this dish is significantly increased if you also have to take cursing and first aid into account.
Steps
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1
Done
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Use a mandolin to slice the vegetables to 1–2 mm thick as follows. Do the kohlrabi first and sprinkle a pinch of salt over the slices so that they soften just a little. Trim the base off the fennel, cut the stalks off the top and save any fronds, then slice it thinly from root to tip and transfer it to a bowl of iced water so that it curls and remains fresh. Slice the cucumber into rounds and the radishes lengthways and add these to the iced water. For the cauliflower, break it into florets and carefully slice them lengthways. (This is a bit of a fiddle, but don’t worry about it crumbling – that’ll add texture.) |
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2
Done
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When everything is ready, drain the fennel, radish and cucumber and mix the components together. Dress with oil and vinegar, mix, add as many fennel fronds as you can pick, and serve immediately (the vinegar and salt will cause the vegetables to wilt). |
