Barny Haughton's September Garden Salad

This is a salad of thinly sliced raw September vegetables which have been  tossed in a lemony olive oil dressing. The colours, still summery but with hints of harvest festival, are wonderfully appealing and vibrant.

Other vegetables might include kohlrabi, celeriac & green beans. The vegetables need to be firm and crunchy. Keep the beetroot separate until the last minute so that it doesn’t stain the other vegetables.

A salad for four people will need:
4 scrubbed baby beetroot
1 bulb of fennel
2 peeled carrots
2 small courgettes
A handful of  runner beans
2 sweetcorn
A big handful of peppery salad leaves (rocket, watercress, mustard leaves etc)
A small bunch of mint
For the dressing - olive oil, lemon, white wine vinegar, salt

Making the dressing
In a big salad bowl, make a dressing with the juice of a lemon and a splash of white wine vinegar mixed with half a teaspoon of salt, to five parts of olive oil. Pour a little of this dressing into a smaller bowl for the beetroot.

Preparing the vegetables
You will need a sharp knife. Remove the sweet corn kernels from the cob. Slice the runner beans you know how.  Slice the courgettes, carrots and fennel into thin ribbons. Toss all these vegetables in the dressing in the bigger bowl. Slice the beetroot, thin as the petals of a rose and toss in the dressing in the smaller bowl. Leave both bowls of vegetables to mascerate for about 10 minutes.

Assembling the salad
Add the leaves and mint to the bigger bowl and toss gently together.
Transfer to a serving dish. Tuck the beetroot into the salad for random splashes of colour.
See what I mean? Lovely. September on a plate.
And crumble some feta or goat’s cheese over the top if you like.
You could also toast some hazelnuts and scatter those over the top as well.


(C) Barny Haughton