Jamie Olivers Root Vegetable Salad
Ingredients
Grilled Chili Dressing:
3 fresh red chiles
10 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
a small bunch of mint, leaves picked and finely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Salad:
3 fresh beetroots (all different colors if possible), peeled
3 carrots, peeled
1 celery heart, with leaves
1/2 a small radicchio head, washed and dried
1 bunch of radishes, topped and tailed
1 fennel bulb, herby tops reserved
Directions
Prepare the Dressing:
Prick the chiles with the tip of a sharp knife, this stops them
popping or exploding when they are cooked. Hold your chiles, one
at a time, with a pair of metal tongs in a gas flame until
they're blackened and blistered all over.
If you don't have a gas stove, pop them under a hot broiler
instead.
Place the chiles in a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and
leave for 15 minutes.
This way they will steam in their own heat and the skins will
peel off very easily. peel the chiles, open them up and scrape
out all the white seeds.
Discard these, then finely chop the flesh of the chiles.
Put in a mixing bowl, add the oil, lemon juice, and mint, and
mix well.
Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Prepare Salad:
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 chili dressing, season
carefully to taste, and serve sprinkled with the reserved fennel
tops.