In this season of excess—of roasted meats, of whipped cream-topped pies, of cookies and "tree"-shaped candies—we sometimes forget our dear friend, the vegetable.Now, we're not asking you to replace your golden-skinned centerpiece with a pile of steamed broccoli and raw cashew "cheese" sauce. But it couldn't hurt to throw a lil' salad on the holiday smorgasbord table, too.And for that, you should turn to vegetable maestro Yotam Ottolenghi, an omnivore who has nevertheless made it his business to elevate the world of edible plants to that of animals.He and Ramael Scully, his head chef at NOPI, stopped by the MUNCHIES Garden a couple months back to demonstrate the fine art of the simple salad.
Taken from the new NOPI cookbook, this salad is nothing more than apples, endive, and some black radish—a slightly bitter, gothier cousin of the typical red variety. But the secret's in the sauce, as usual: a wintry vinaigrette that's given a kick with some cinnamon. Just toss that with your thinly shaved vegetables, and you have your greens covered for the day in the best way possible.All in all, you're looking at about 20 minutes of work, which should be enough to burn off some of the 8,000 calories you just ate in that slice of bûche de Noël.