Fresh Farmer's Market Salad

"What were you going to do with those?", a lady asked me when I picked up a bunch of beautiful radishes at the farmer's markets on the weekend. "Not sure. Throw them in a salad, maybe?", I replied. And as it happened I also picked up tiny beets, parsnips, broccoli, carrots, and some other seasonal veggies - purely because I just couldn't resist their freshness and gorgeous colours. I didn't have a recipe in mind, I just stashed the veggies in my shopping bag feeling quite content about my purchases.

Some things really are just best eaten raw, don't you think? I was playing with the idea of roasting the radishes, but when I peeled and sliced them, I realised their beautiful colour and flavour would be wasted if I was going to roast the living daylights out of them. Instead I went about marinating them in verjuice and lime juice and they needn't any other seasoning. Pared with other finely sliced veggies they made a beautifully sharp and fresh salad. 

Fresh Farmer's Market Salad

(serves 2-4)

bunch of radishes

1 apple

1/2 parsnip

1 carrot

1/2 red onion

1/4 cup natural raisins*

small piece of fresh ginger

1/4 cup verjuice

1 lime

* look for the ones that have no added sunflower oil.

1. Thinly slice the radishes, apple, parsnip and carrot and place in a bowl. Pour half of the verjuice and the juice of half a lime on top and mix to coat. Leave to marinade for half an hour.

2. Soak the raisins and the finely chopped ginger in the remaining verjuice and lime juice for 15 minutes. 

3. Squeeze out the liquid and add the raisins and the ginger with the other ingredients. Save the soaking liquid.

4. Finely slice the onion and soak it in the left-over juice for 10 minutes. Squeeze out the liquid and add the onion in to the salad. Discard the juice. (Soaking the onion will get rid of the extra acidity.) Serve the salad immediately or leave in the fridge for another half an hour for the flavours to develop.