At the time of writing this recipe there is something happening in my life, and that thing is beets, a.k.a beetroot.
I get my veg through a home delivery of seasonal items and for a few weeks now the beets have been arriving, and piling up in the vege bin because I’m not sooo into them. The flavour is very strong to my tastebuds, probably had a traumatic childhood experience involving supermarket canned beetroot. So slimy.
I do have fond adult memories, however, of some very nice beetroot salads from cafes and restaurants. Somehow, those experts have cracked the code on taste and texture in a way that makes it good and toned down the (to me) overwhelming beet-iness.
So I headed off to ye old central library and spent a bit of time investigating beet salad recipes. What I came up with is heavily inspired by ‘Odessa Beets’ from the classic that is The Moosewood Cookbook and is both tasty and aesthetic.
I’ve still got lots of beets left, but with this up my sleeve at least beet season won’t have me scratching my head over what to do with them!
Sweet Summer Beets
Ingredients
- 6 medium to large beets
The Dressing
- 200 grams crushed pineapple in juice
- 6 prunes pitted
- 2 lemons juice of
- 1 tsp lemon rind (optional)
- 2 cloves crushed garlic
- 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
To Garnish
- 1 cup nuts or seeds we used NZ hazelnuts and sprouted, roasted sunflower seeds
- salt to sprinkle if you want it
- 1/4 red onion finely sliced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius
Cooking your beets
- Wrap beets individually in baking foil and pop them into the oven for 45-60 minutes. At 45 minutes don your oven mitt and check one for tenderness by sticking it with a fork. The fork should require very little pressure to pierce the beet but there should be still some basic firmness.
- Once done, unwrap the beets, then one by one, hold them under cold running water and rub the skins off.
- Cut beets into your desired size cubes.
The Dressing
- The dressing can be prepared while the beets are cooking.
- If your prunes are hard, soak for 10 minutes in hot water
- Finely cut the prunes and mix all ingredients in a bowl
- Add the red onion and nuts to the beets, then stir the dressing through.
Notes
As ever, let me know in the comments below if you have any awesome ideas for beets, or try this recipe and came up with an interesting variation.
Finally a recipe that uses up those beetroot in the vege deliveries. I didn’t have crushed pineapple so used chunks and it was fine.