Summer-Vegetable Salad
By: Anonymous
Published: Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 11:19pm

Ingredients




20 baby carrots
12 baby yellow or Chioggia beets
12 baby turnips
pound wax beans
pound haricots verts
12 pearl or red pearl onions
(with tops, if possible)
1 pint mixed small tomatoes
(such as cherry)
Salt as needed
Extra-virgin olive oil as needed
Fleur de sel to taste
(French sea salt)
Freshly-ground black pepper to taste
lemon
2 ounces pecorino Romano or to taste
3 tablespoons snipped chives

Preparation

1 As each vegetable is prepared, set aside separately: Trim the stems of the carrots to one-fourth inch and cut the tips off. Peel and cut in half. 2 Trim and peel the beets and turnips. Cut them in halves or quarters depending on their size. 3 Trim the wax beans and haricots verts and cut into 2-inch lengths on the bias. 4 Trim the green tops of the pearl onions to 1 inch. Barely trim the root end so that the onion layers stay intact when they are blanched. Peel the onions and leave whole. 5 Remove the stems of the tomatoes. If the tomatoes are large, cut them in half, otherwise leave them whole. The tomatoes will not be blanched. 6 The day you'll prepare the salad, bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Blanch the vegetables, except for the tomatoes, separately until tender (about 3 to 5 minutes depending on the vegetable). 7 Taste the vegetables to test if they are done. They should be tender but a little crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and chill in ice water. Drain well in a colander and then on a clean thick towel. 8 Cut the pearl onions in half after they are blanched. 9 In a large bowl, toss all of the vegetables together with 3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil. Season them with fleur de sel and pepper to taste. Squeeze the lemon over them and lightly toss. 10 Transfer the vegetables to a large white platter. Use a vegetable peeler to shave the pecorino over the top. Drizzle liberally with olive oil and sprinkle with snipped chives. 11 This recipe yields 8 servings. 12 Comments: You can substitute your favorite vegetables or those special finds at the farmers market. The vegetables may be cleaned and trimmed a day before serving. Store the root vegetables in cold water to keep them crisp.