Spring Dinner Salad with Honey-Mustard Vinaigrette
Here’s a dish inspired by the most traditional of Yankee foods: boiled dinner. Cabbage, potatoes, carrots, peas, chives, and radishes all combine to form the base of the salad, while prosciutto stands in for the corned beef.
Here’s a dish inspired by the most traditional of Yankee foods: boiled dinner. Cabbage, potatoes, carrots, peas, chives, and radishes all combine to form the base of the salad, while prosciutto stands in for the corned beef, which can be hard to find off-season. If you prefer, you can certainly use corned to beef, though. Just cook it according to package instructions and slice thinly across the grain.
How to Make Spring Dinner Salad with Honey-Mustard Vinaigrette
Yield:
6 servingsFor the Salad
Ingredients
3/4 pound very small new potatoes, halved (if you have larger potatoes, cut into quarters)
10 ounces baby carrots, halved lengthwise (quarter them lengthwise if large)
1 tablespoon salt
1 medium head Savoy cabbage, cored
1 bunch radishes, tops and ends trimmed
1/2 cup peas (defrosted frozen peas are fine)
1/4 cup finely chopped chives
4 to 6 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, depending on your preference
Instructions
Set a steamer basket in a 3- to 4-quart pot. Fill the pot with enough water to come just up to the basket and add the salt to the water (for added flavor, use a combination of half water and half white wine if you happen to have a partly-used bottle in the refrigerator—don’t open a fresh bottle just for this). Meanwhile, set a bowl of ice water next to the stove.
Add the potatoes to the steamer basket and set over high heat. Once the water starts steaming, cook the potatoes, covered, for 10 minutes. Add the carrots to the basket and cook until just tender (not mushy), 8 to 10 minutes more. Immediately drain the potatoes and carrots and transfer them to the ice water to stop the cooking, then drain and set aside.
Separate the leaves of the cabbage using your hands and tear them into small pieces, working around the thick center of each leaf. You can leave the smallest core leaves whole. Arrange them in a large bowl. Cut the radishes into very thin slices (a mandoline works best here) and arrange those in a pile on one side of the bowl. Arrange the peas and chives in other piles. Fill in the remainder of the outside of the bowl with the potatoes and carrots, then arrange the prosciutto in the center.
Serve the dressing alongside the salad.
For the Dressing
Ingredients
1 large garlic clove, minced
6 tablespoons honey mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 or 3 teaspoons honey (optional)
Instructions
In a jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine the garlic, garlic, honey mustard, vinegar, and olive oil. Cover and shake well to combine, then add salt and pepper to taste. If desired, add the additional teaspoons of honey to balance out the flavor—you want it sweet-tangy (different mustards have varying levels of sweetness).
