Cucumber & Horseradish Salad

You don’t really think of horseradish as Italian but this is an Italian recipe so there you go. We have a huge horseradish plant in the garden. We’ve preserved a lot of it in white wine vinegar, so we can quickly mix a tablespoon with crème fraiche, but this is an unusual way to serve it as a very punchy salad.

 1 Cucumber

120g horseradish root

1 clove garlic

150ml yoghurt

2tbsp white wine vinegar

1 pinch ground ginger

1 big pinch cayenne pepper

Small bunch watercress

Salt & pepper

Peel the cucumber and horseradish. Peeling the horseradish made the boy cry. I can’t resist patting him and saying “There, there”. Cut into thin strips

The original recipe suggests cutting the garlic clove in half and running it around the salad bowl, but this always seems lame so we’re crushing ours in.

Pour the yoghurt in a bowl and add the garlic, ginger and cayenne and whisk well. Add the cucumber and horseradish and mix well. Season and garnish with the watercress.

It’s hard to think what this might go with as it is quite overpowering, but the boy suggested his own favourite – sandwiches. The sharpness would accompany a cheese and tomato sandwich admirably – especially if you toasted the sandwich. I reckon it would be good with a pasta salad too.