Shaved Root Vegetable Salad: So pretty. So thin. We should all try to be more like Shaved Root Vegetable Salad. I mean, not you. You're already so pretty and so thin. But those other people. They should try.

Thanksgiving Side-Dish Face-Off continues today with a Shaved Root Vegetable Salad facing off against the Kale and Brussels Sprout Salad, which then morphed into Kale Slaw.

Shaving things, as it applies to food, is more appealing than it first appears. I will now provide examples: chocolate shavings, shaving a paper-thin slice of apple and placing it in vodka, shaving potatoes and baking them instead of sitting in your pantry eating potato chips and crying. I am now out of examples, but you see the possibilities here.

Or perhaps it’s just my love of mandolins, a device that provides magical slicing options and the ability to accidentally commit suicide while cooking.

The Shaved Root Vegetable Salad recipe came from the latest issue of bon appetit, just like the Kale and Brussels Sprout Salad. It’s quite simple, assuming you have your mandolin handy: Cut incredibly thin slices of carrots, beets, radishes and turnips; toss in a dressing of hazelnut oil, vegetable oil, orange juice and lemon juice; top with hazelnuts and parsley. You’re done. Minimal work, impressive result that’s sure to get some comments at the table. Maybe this is what you need to finally get Aunt Gerty to stop making JELL-O with Velveeta. (True story. Except Gerty’s name. So half of that one-sentence story was true.)

There’s no denying this salad is gorgeous. It’s hard to go wrong throwing beets and transparent slices of radishes together: It’s art, really. Healthy art that will impress people at that.

It’s a plate of raw vegetables, but greens parade around raw all the time and we don’t question calling those salads.

Next up: The salads face off. Raw root vegetables with a homemade dressing vs. raw green vegetables with a homemade dressing. You’ve dreamed of this showdown.