Crudités

Many French family evening meals begin with some kind of raw vegetable - not so much a first course but as a reflex akin to serving bread. My children eat them as a starter at their school lunches, and they are expected to then eat more vegetables with their main course. It’s a healthy habit to get into and a good way of reconnecting taste buds to pure raw flavour. This is easily done in France, of course, where weekly local markets mean the produce is never far from the place or the moment