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Serves
2 as an entree, 4 as a side
Author Notes
Sometimes, salads are just a way to eat more cheese. Bring on the feta crumbles, goat cheese blobs, and pecorino shards. This dressing cuts to the chase with lots of ground parmesan, chock-full of umami. Don’t use pre-grated—it’s usually mixed with anti-caking agents labeled as “cellulose.” I like to grind chunks in a food processor until fine. Or, just use a microplane or the smallest holes on a grater. What you will need is a mandoline to shave the vegetables. Play around with the combination—just make sure it’s crunchy, crunchy, crunchy. Think carrots, radishes, daikon, turnips. —Emma Laperruque
Test Kitchen Notes
This recipe is part of Change The Way You Cook, a new series to help anyone (yes, you!) become smarter, faster, and more freewheeling in the kitchen. —The Editors
Ingredients
- Parmesan vinaigrette
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1/4 cup
freshly ground (or finely grated) parmesan cheese
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2 tablespoons
extra-virgin olive oil
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Juice of 1 lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
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Pinch kosher salt
- Salad
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1/2
head of cauliflower
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1/2
bulb of fennel (cut lengthwise, stem still attached)
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2
small beets, preferably red and golden, peeled
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Kosher salt
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Ground or finely grated parmesan, for garnish
Directions
- Parmesan vinaigrette
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Combine the parmesan, olive oil, lemon juice, and salt in a jar with a lid. Close and shake, shake, shake until creamy and emulsified. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed.
- Salad
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Break the cauliflower into big florets. Shave on a mandoline into 1/8”-thick slices—if they’re too thin, they’ll fall apart—directly into a large bowl. Halve the fennel half, lengthwise, leaving the stem attached (this ensures pretty fennel cross-sections). Shave each fennel quarter on the mandoline into paper-thin slices, directly into the bowl. Shave each beet on the mandoline into paper-thin slices, directly into the bowl. Sprinkle with a couple big pinches of salt and toss gingerly with your hands.
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Dress the salad—you’ll use all of the vinaigrette—and toss again with your hands. Taste and adjust the salt if necessary. (This can keep in the fridge for a couple hours.) Shower with more ground parmesan just before serving.
Emma was the food editor at Food52. She created the award-winning column, Big Little Recipes, and turned it into a cookbook in 2021. These days, she's a senior editor at Bon Appétit, leading digital cooking coverage. Say hello on Instagram at @emmalaperruque.
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