Seriously Simple: Shaved vegetable salad starts the new year off right

Jonathan Waxman began his cooking career in the ’80s at Michael’s restaurant in Santa Monica.

It was there he learned the tenets of modern California cuisine and practiced them daily. His insistence on the freshest vegetables shone through in all of his cooking.

Today he owns Barbuto, a restaurant in New York City, celebrating community and delicious food. You can still see his California cuisine influence in many of his dishes. In his latest book, “The Barbuto Cookbook,” he shares a wealth of California-Italian recipes from his beloved West Village restaurant.

This salad is a perfect showcase of simple, fresh ingredients. Colorful and vibrantly tasty, it needs little more than arranging the peels on a plate for a spectacular presentation. You’ll need a good vegetable peeler to make easy work out of these bright hued veggies.

You can serve this with a simple soup of pureed mushrooms for a satisfying lunch or dinner. This salad is such a great way to kick off the new year. Fresh, clean cuisine.

Shaved Veg Salad

Serves 4

4 heirloom carrots, washed and topped, thinly sliced lengthwise

1 bunch thick asparagus, washed and thinly sliced lengthwise

3 watermelon radishes, washed and thinly sliced crosswise

6 stalks young celery, washed and thinly sliced lengthwise

3 tablespoons toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

A few mint leaves, for garnish

1.) Toss all the ingredients together, seasoning with salt and pepper.

2.) Garnish with mint leaves and serve.

Diane Rossen Worthington is an authority on new American cooking. She is the author of 18 cookbooks, including “Seriously Simple Parties,” and a James Beard Award-winning radio show host. You can contact her at www.seriouslysimple.com.