Ingredients
| ½ baby romanesco | |
| 1 baby cucumber | |
| 1 baby gem lettuce | |
| 4 yellow butter beans | |
| 2 Paris Market carrots | |
| 2 zucchini (courgette) flowers | |
| 2 purple carrots | |
| 2 Hakurei turnips | |
| 1 baby chioggia (candy stripe) beetroot and its leaves | |
| 1 pink turnip | |
| 6 amaranth leaves | |
| 6 blueberries | |
| 4 purple basil leaves | |
| 4 shiso leaves | |
| 4 Greek basil tips | |
| olive oil, to serve | |
| CASHEW MISO CREAM | |
| 250g (9 oz) raw cashew nuts | |
| 220ml (7½ fl oz) water | |
| 50g (1¾ oz) chickpea miso or a sweet, nutty brown rice miso | |
| ¼ teaspoon salt |
I suppose every chef that ever worked for Michel Bras has their version or homage to his famous dish ‘The Gargouillou’, comprised of over fifty different vegetables, herbs and flowers, purées, pickles, fruits and French country ham. This one incredible dish taught me so much about seasonality, flavour, ingredient combinations, and how truly great dishes transcend food trends and fads. This is a very simple salad, loosely inspired by my time at Bras, that basically includes every vegetable we have in the fridge in early summer in Tasmania. An autumn, spring or winter version would be just as great – just different.
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Instructions
| 1. | Soak the cashews in cold water for at least 2 hours or overnight. |
| 2. | Drain, then combine with the water, miso and salt and blend on high speed until smooth. It may take a while. |
| 3. | Clean and slice the vegetables, keeping edible leaves on where possible. |
| 4. | All vegetables in this particular salad are raw, sliced thinly or into florets or left whole depending on the vegetable. |
| 5. | It’s about taking a whole bunch of beautiful, in-season vegetables and treating them like crudités, dragging them through the cashew dip. |
| 6. | Dress a plate with the cashew miso cream and arrange the vegetables on top. |
| 7. | Dress with olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. |
This is an edited extract from How Wild Things Are by Analiese Gregory, published by Hardie Grant Books, RRP $45. Photographer: ©Adam Gibson.