Embracing the festive winter season with a burst of color and flavor on your holiday table! Our Christmas Salad for 2023 is a visual masterpiece, featuring beautifully shaped, jeweled-toned radicchio leaves, lightly grilled to perfection. Paired with aromatic fennel and drizzled with a creamy crème fraîche dressing, this salad is a delightful balance of bitter and sweet, creating a symphony of tastes that will leave your taste buds dancing with joy.
Winter Greens: Winter brings forth a bounty of deep-colored, nutrient-rich vegetables. Our Christmas Salad celebrates the bold flavors of a readily available winter chicory. Chicories like Treviso, puntarella, are seldom available in my neck of the woods, but if you find them in. your market use them. To mellow out their inherent bitterness, we gently grill these vibrant leaves, transforming them into a sensational base for our festive creation.
Ingredients:
- Radicchio, cored and cut into wedges
- Fennel
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Lemon Juice
- White Wine Vinegar
- Dijon mustard
- garlic powder(optional)
- Honey or maple syrup
- Crème fraîche
- Roasted Almonds for garnish
Ingredient Highlight: Crème Fraîche
Crème fraîche, is wonderful ingredient, a French delicacy believed to have been developed in Normandy. It literally translates to ‘fresh cream’ that is cultured using lacto bacteria like yogurt. What makes crème fraîche perfect for cooking is its higher fat content (about 40%) which means it is less likely to curdle when cooking or acidic ingredients. It adds a smooth, silky texture with a hint of acidity, making it ideal for variety of dishes, both sweet and savory. The closest alternative I would say would be cultured full fat sour cream, which is more acidic than crème fraîche.
Grilling Vegetables:
- Cut radicchio into wedges, leaving a bit of the core to keep the leaves attached.
- Slice fennel into one-inch pieces.
- Preheat the grill or grill pan.
- Brush radicchio with olive oil, lightly sprinkle with sea salt, and grill until lightly charred (1-2 minutes per side).
Crème Fraîche Dressing:
Whisk together in a small bowl.
- White wine vinegar
- Olive oil
- Lemon Juice
- Dijon mustard
- Honey
- Crème fraîche
Assembly:
- Place half of the grilled radicchio and fennel on a platter.
- Drizzle half of the crème fraîche dressing, followed by toasted almonds.
- Repeat with the remaining radicchio, fennel, dressing, and almonds for an evenly dressed and garnished salad.
Leftovers and Tips: This vibrant salad is best enjoyed within 1-3 hours, as the grilled radicchio maintains its crispiness and flavor. Unfortunately, it doesn’t hold up well for an extended period, so best enjoyed while it’s fresh. Freezing leftovers IS not recommended!
Grilled Radicchio Salad
Equipment
- grilling pan
Ingredients
- 2 lbs radicchio about 2-4 heads, ***see notes for prepping
- 1 medium fennel
- ⅓ cup crème fraiche
- 2-3 tbsp e.v. olive oil
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1-2 tbsp honey or maple syrup depending how sweet you like it to balance the bitterness
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp garlic powder optional
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- sea salt and black pepper
- 2-3 tbsp roasted sliced almonds or nuts of your choice
Instructions
- Preheat the grill on medium-high or heat a grill pan over medium-high heat.
- Brush the radicchio all over with 1-2 tablespoons of the olive oil and sprinkle very lightly with salt. Place the radicchio on the grill or grill pan and cook until lightly charred, 1-2 minutes per side.
- Once you've charred all th radicchio. Char the fennel allowing 2-3 minutes per side.
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic powder (if using) honey, crème fraîche, remaining olive oil, salt and pepper.
Assemble
- On a large plate or serving platter, place a single layer of, about half of the grilled radicchio, and fennel. Drizzle with half of the dressing and sprinkle with half of the roasted almonds. Repeat with the remaining grilled radicchio, fennel, +dressing, and almonds.
Stunning salad.
Thank you Sara.