Crudité d’inverno con mimosa d'uovo – Winter Salad with Egg Mimosa

Winter  strikes me with its variety of vegetables. Surprisingly enough, in winter I take the chance of preparing crunchy and tasty salads every day. 

It is the best season to taste sweet raw cauliflowers, delicate spiky artichokes, the mild aniseed flavour of fennels. 

On one condition: it is essential to finely slice winter vegetables. Using the fine blade of a food processor would be the best solution. 

The egg mimosa along with sultanas give softness to the salad, while the vinaigrette made with fresh lemon juice, mayonnaise, mustard and a good-quality of extra virgin oil combines the ingredients together.

Crudité d’inverno con uova mimosa – Winter Salad with Egg Mimosa

2 tablespoons sultanas
4 eggs
150 g cauliflower florets
2 spiky artichokes
1 medium fennel
3 baby courgettes
1 large carrot
The fresh juice of 1 small lemon
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Sea salt and black pepper


Serves 4
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

1. Soak the sultanas in hot water and leave it to soften for 20 minutes. Drain and pat dry.
2. In a pan, arrange the eggs and cover with water. Bring to the boil and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, drain and cover with running cold water. Leave to cool. 
3. To prepare the artichokes, trim the stalks to the bottom of the flower and remove the tough outer leaves until you reach the pale and tender ones. Trim the spiky tops and quarter the artichokes. 
4. Trim the top and the bottom and discard the outer leaves of the fennel; wash and quarter it.
5. Trim the courgettes.
6. Trim and peel the carrot.
7. Finely slice (2 mm fine slicer) the vegetables in a food processor and arrange them in a salad bowl.
8. Peel and halve the eggs; remove the yolks and crumble thm with your fingers. Finely chop the withes with a knife.
9. Prepare your vinaigrette: in a small bowl combine the lemon juice with salt and pepper; add the oil, the mayonnaise and the mustard and emulsify with a fork. 
10. Dress the salad with the vinaigrette. 
11. Sprinkle with the egg whites and the yolks. Serve.