Shaved Vegetable Salad with Creamy Miso Dressing

Ingredients

• 12 oz fennel bulb (stalks discarded, bulb halved, cored, and sliced thin)
• 6 oz red beets (3 small beets, trimmed, peeled, and sliced thin)
• 2 celery ribs (sliced thin)
• 2 carrots (peeled and sliced thin)
• 3 radishes (1½ to 2-inch size, trimmed and sliced thin)
• 2 cup ice
• 3 scallions (white parts chopped coarse, green parts cut into 2-inch lengths)
• 0.333 cup white miso
• 0.333 cup cider vinegar
• 0.25 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp tahini
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 garlic clove (crushed)
• 0.5 tsp table salt
• 0.5 tsp pepper
• cayenne pepper (pinch)

Steps

1. 1

   Place the sliced fennel, beets, celery, carrots, and radishes in a salad spinner basket and place the basket inside the salad spinner bowl.

2. 2

   Spread 2 cups of ice over the surface of the vegetables. Add cold water to the bowl until the vegetables are completely submerged.

3. 3

   Slice the scallion greens lengthwise into very thin matchsticks. Sprinkle these over the ice and press lightly to submerge them.

4. 4

   Cover the salad spinner and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 16 hours, to allow the vegetables to become crisp.

5. 5

   While the vegetables chill, prepare the dressing. Combine the miso, cider vinegar, vegetable oil, chopped scallion whites, tahini, honey, crushed garlic, salt, pepper, and cayenne in a blender.

6. 6

   Process the dressing until completely smooth, about 1 to 2 minutes. The mixture will be thick. Transfer to a small bowl, cover, and refrigerate until needed.

7. 7

   When ready to serve, use tongs to pluck the curled scallion greens from the top of the ice water and transfer them to a paper towel–lined plate to drain.

8. 8

   Skim off and discard any remaining ice from the surface of the water. Drain the vegetables and spin them thoroughly in the salad spinner.

9. 9

   Lift the basket, shake it to rearrange the vegetables, and discard the collected water. Repeat the spinning and draining process 2 to 3 more times until less than 1 teaspoon of water collects in the bottom of the spinner.

10. 10

    Transfer three-quarters of the dried vegetables to a serving platter. Drizzle three-quarters of the miso dressing over the vegetables.

11. 11

    Arrange the remaining vegetables over the dressing, sprinkle the curled scallion greens over the top, and serve immediately, passing the remaining dressing separately.

Notes

For best results, slice vegetables to the thickness of a dime using a mandoline. If small beets are unavailable, use one 6-ounce beet cut into quarters before slicing. You should have about 1.5 lbs of sliced vegetables in total. An immersion blender can be used for the dressing, though the texture will be slightly less smooth.

Nutrition per serving

• salad
• side dish
• vegetarian
• gluten-free
• dairy-free
• spring
• no-cook