Vegetable Party Bouquet

A beautiful way to present your next vegetable platter at any party or potluck. This is fun to make, but will take some practice making the flowers out of the veggies. You can chop and carve the veggies up to 1 day in advance and store them in a bowl of ice water in the refrigerator. Prep time depends on your skill but I had to put something. Serve with a tasty dip.

• Ready In: 2 hrs
• Serves: 14

Ingredients

• 1  head cabbage
• 1  bunch radish
• 1  yellow bell pepper
• 1  orange bell pepper
• 5  medium carrots
• 2  bunches green onions
• 2  cups cauliflower florets
• 2  cups broccoli florets
• 1  cucumber, sliced into rounds
• 1  pint cherry tomatoes
• 5  stalks celery, with tops
• 1  head endive
• 1  bunch chicory lettuce
• 1  bunch asparagus spear, blanched
• 1  box  thin italian  breadstick
•  bamboo skewer

Directions

1. Cut the ends off each radish.
2. Slice half way down on four sides to make petals, leaving the biggest part intact in the center.
3. Place in a bowl of ice water.
4. Core bell peppers.
5. Cut into vertical leaf-shaped slices.
6. Make carrot tulips by slicing toward the pointed end of the carrot with the tip if a sharp paring knife; do not cut through.
7. Form two more petals around the carrot.
8. Angle knife tip to seperate tulip from the rest of the carrot.
9. Place in ice water.
10. Cut off the bottom of the green onion stalks leaving about 3 inches of the onion and part of the top.
11. Reserve the upper part of the tops.
12. Cut close vertical slits from the cut end down to an inch from the base.
13. Place in ice water to frill.
14. Trim skewers to various lengths.
15. Place reserved onion tops over some of the skewers like a sheath.
16. Insert top of covered skewers into bottoms of all florets, bell peppers, cucumber slices, radish and carrot flowers, tomatoes, prepared green onion frills, celery stalks, endive leaves and chicory leaves, creating a"stem" on each piece.
17. Insert uncovered skewers into asparagus spears and breadsticks.
18. Cut cabbage in half; place in the bottom of the basket, cut side down, as a base.
19. Create a bouquet by inserting ends of skewers into cabbage, balancing shapes and colors of the vegetables.
20. Place vegetables on shorter skewers along the outer rim of the basket.
21. Insert breadsticks just before serving to prevent them from getting soggy.