April Bloomfield’s Grilled Vegetable Vinaigrette
Genius Recipes
Photo by James Ransom
- Serves
- 2 cups
Feel free to use any combination of grilled vegetables and herbs you've got, but this one is especially good. As Bloomfield writes, "This is a chunky dressing that makes each bite of a salad taste different. The dressing is also good spooned over a steak and sprinkled with crumbled blue cheese, or dolloped onto a lamb chop with some feta." We also loved it spooned onto toast, stirred into pasta or potatoes or tuna salad. Adapted very slightly from A Girl and Her Greens (Ecco, 2015).
Ingredients
- 1 medium fennel bulb, outer layer, stalks and fronds removed, root end trimmed of brown bits
- 1 small red onion (about 1/4 pound), cut into 1/2-inch thick rounds
- 1 small head radicchio (outermost leaves removed, bottom trimmed of brown bits, quartered lengthwise) and cut into 1/2-inch thick wedges
- 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoon sherry vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Maldon or another flaky sea salt
- 1 small garlic clove, very finely chopped
- A five-finger pinch of fresh mint leaves
- A five-finger pinch of fresh marjoram leaves
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Directions
- Step 1
Halve the fennel bulb lengthwise and cut each halfway through the root nub (so the wedges stay intact) into about 1-inch-thick wedges.
- Step 2
Heat a grill or heavy grill pan over high heat until it’s good and hot, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and add fennel, onion and radicchio. Cook, turning vegetables over occasionally, until fennel and onion are lightly charred in spots and cooked through, but still have a little bite, about 20 minutes. The radicchio is done when the stems are tender but still have a little bite, the leaves are wilty, the tips crackly, about 15 to 20 minutes.
- Step 3
As they finish, pop the grilled vegetables into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap until they’ve cooled fully. They’ll steam a bit and cook some more as they cool. Once they’ve all cooled, chop the vegetables into a mix of about 1/2-inch pieces, some smaller and some larger.
- Step 4
Pop the vegetables back into the bowl, add the oil, vinegar, salt and garlic, and stir really well. Toss the mint and marjoram together on a cutting board, give them a rough chop and stir them into the dressing. Store leftovers tightly sealed in the fridge for up to 5 days, though the herbs will fade.