Description
A deceptively simple summer salad of Zucchini, lemon, and herbs, adapted from the 1994 book, Roger Vergé’s Vegetables. You will have to supreme a lemon and chiffonade some basil, but it’s easier than it sounds and the result is a savory Zucchini salad that’s absolutely delicious. Make sure your paring knife is sharp!
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 Meyer lemons, one supremed, one juiced
- 2 medium Zucchini
- 1 medium, ripe plum tomato
- Zest from half of one of the lemons
- Six to eight leaves of freshly picked basil, including some tiny, tiny leaves, cut in a chiffonade
- 1/2 tablespoon Kosher salt (or your favorite expensive sea salt)
- Freshly ground pepper to taste
Instructions
- Peel the Zucchini in strips so you leave colorful green stripes of peel about a quarter-inch wide.
- Dice the Zucchini. (Vergé says 1/8 inch dice, but if that’s a bit small for you, just make them as small as you can. A quarter inch is OK.) Add to a bowl.
- Add the juice from one lemon to the bowl with zucchini
- Supreme the other lemon over the bowl to reserve juice, add segments to bowl
- Squeeze the seeds and juice from a fresh plum tomato; dice the same as the zucchini
- Place into the bowl with the lemon juice, add a generous pinch of salt, cover with saran wrap, and refrigerator for at least half an hour, letting it macerate.
- Remove, make basil chiffonade, using about six or seven freshly picked basil. (Vergé uses mint, but I think basil goes really well with the peppery Meyer lemon—you do you), reserving the tiniest leaves for garnish.
- Taste for seasoning, garnish with the zest and basil leaves, gently turning them into the salad.
- Serve.
Notes
Alternative: replace the Zucchini with steamed baby beets, and the basil with fresh dill.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 35
- Category: salad
- Cuisine: French