Roasted Root Vegetable Salad with Shallot Vinaigrette by Deb Perelman of the Smitten Kitchen

The salad that I made was a slight variation of a recipe in Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen cookbook. Basically, I left out the quinoa that she included. By the way, it was the first time I had tried roasting radishes....and hey, they're not just for raw veggie trays anymore.

I served this dish at room temperature but suspect it equally good if served warm or cold.

Roasting Radishes (and other things)

Ingredients:

• 3 small shallots
• olive oil
• 1 and 1/2 pounds of mixed root vegetables ( I use baby turnips, radishes, potatoes and carrots)
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar plus more for finishing
• 2 big pinches of coarse salt
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• pepper

Methods:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Peel the shallots and separate the cloves. Place the shallots in a square of aluminum foil, coat with olive oil, then wrap the foil around the cloves to create a packet and place it in the oven.

Arrange the rest of the vegetables in one layer on a baking sheet and coat them with olive oil. Squeeze lemon juice over the vegetables and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Place the vegetables into the oven with the packet of shallots and roast until tender and slightly caramelized. (Perhaps 30 minutes). 

Remove the vegetables from the oven and set aside. Toss the cooked shallots into a blender along with the sherry and balsamic vinegars and salt and pepper. Drizzle in the olive oil and blend thoroughly. Adjust the seasonings to taste, then spoon the vinaigrette over the vegetables. Finish the dish before serving with some drops of reduced balsamic vinegar.