Some would argue that raw root veg as a credible dinner dish had its day during the 70’s where it was regularly spiked then dunked into molten Swiss cheese and shared amongst people wearing oddly fitting clothes sporting oddly fitting hair…facial or other. I’m not and do not subscribe to the ‘raw’ movement by the way…that’s just another twaddly fad – what I do subscribe to is using vegetable in salads that previously would have been populated only be the fruity/sweet veg ie tomatoes, red onions, baby leaves etc, etc.

The first time I saw raw broccoli as part of a meal was in Newport Rhode Island about 7-8 years ago and it did cause me to raise and eyebrow – it was a Shrimp cocktail and it was knockout, but it wasn’t the shrimp that stole the show it was the broccoli! So, ever since that epiphany I’ve been knocking back raw roots like they are heading outta fashion and this dish is my default working well on its own or with hot or colds such as the mighty Mellanzane 

The only thing that you must, must, must ensure with this is that your veg is top of the shop quality and iceberg fresh, anything less than this and you may as well ‘soup it’!

Ingredients

Small head of broccoli

Handful of hot radishes

1/4 small white cabbage

1 medium courgette

5-6 sun dried tomatoes

OK – first up, do not send the ingredients through the food processor for 2 reasons – 1: you won’t improve your knife skills and 2: you won’t improve your knife skills (not a typo). You can of course, but shredding veg like this is the only way to get better with a knife – as a chef I did this constantly and as result I can fillet a hotel full of chickens in under 5 minutes.

Kick off by setting up a mix bowl – an over-size vessel where you can mix the ingredients when shredded by hand.

Next, simple shred in no particular order – dump all into the mix bowl and gently bring all the ingredients together ensuring you separate everything as much as you can.

That’s it – I simple dress this with lemon juice, salt flakes and top end olive oil.