Artist serves salad vegetables (8)
I believe the answer is:
radishes
'salad vegetables' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'artist serves' is the wordplay.
'artist' becomes 'ra' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'serves' becomes 'dishes' ('dish' can be a synonym of 'serve').
'ra'+'dishes'='RADISHES'
(Other definitions for radishes that I've seen before include "salad plants" , "Content of salad bowl" , "Fleshy roots for salads" , "Pungent fleshy edible roots" , "Pungent roots for salads" .)