Dinner Tonight: Roasted Beet Salad
At the Logan Square Farmers' Market in Chicago recently, I came across yellow beets and was told they are sweeter than regular red ones. Whether that's true or not, I was sold. I just had to think of how to cook them. Originally, I wanted to make a nice cool borscht, but was sidetracked by this recipe from One Spice, Two Spice by Floyd Cardoz. The book advertises "American food with Indian flavor," and this is the first recipe I found under the 10-ingredient count. Perfect.
The original recipe calls for salt cod, which I skipped early on. Don't get me wrong, I'm cool with salt cod. But I had everything else ready-to-go at home and didn't feel like tracking down the fish. So this functions more as a side than a full meal, and that was fine by me. I've only really had beets with traditional Italian ingredients, so it was nice to see the vegetable's versatility.
About the author: Nick Kindelsperger is a co-founder of The Paupered Chef, a blog dedicated to saving time and money while enjoying food in every way possible. He sells wine for a living and lives in Columbus, Ohio.
Roasted Beet Salad
Adapted from One Spice, Two Spice by Floyd Cardoz.
- serves 2 to 3 -
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds beets, stems removed and washed
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
1 Serrano chile, seed and thinly chopped
1 teaspoon minced ginger
2 tablespoon cilantro, chopped
pinch of sugar
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
Procedure:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Sprinkle the beets with salt and a tablespoon of the olive oil. Wrap in aluminum foil, leaving a little hole in the top facing up, and set in a roasting pan. Cook until easily pierced with a knife, about 45 minutes or until very tender.
2. Meanwhile, mix together the rest of the olive oil, red onion, Serrano, ginger, cilantro, sugar, and red wine vinegar.
3. When beets are done and cool enough to handle, peel and chop into 1/2 inch pieces.
4. Mix with the rest of the ingredients. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.
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9 Comments:
Love beets, but have never had yellow ones. The prettiest ones I've ever tasted had almost like white concentric circles on the inside.
orchidgirl at 4:32PM on 08/27/08
I've never had yellow beets either, and something about them looks so much more appealing than the red/purple beets that turn my stomach!
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 5:05PM on 08/27/08
At first I was like...Hey! Where's the beets? And then I read the post and realized they were those gorgeous yellow kind. Beets are a much varied and beautiful thing.
TastyNewEngland at 5:13PM on 08/27/08
I recently catered a party and got candy stripe beets flown in from California (I live near Niagara Falls NY). They were red and white stripped when cut raw. I roasted them and the stripes just about went away :( but I think some were golden striped also. Needless to say I made a cold salad with the roasted beets, orange segments, good blue cheese & watercress. For a dressing I used some of the fresh orange juice, olive oil salt & pepper. It was a hit!!
joanpieroni2 at 5:14PM on 08/27/08
I may haveto make this one this weekend. The yellow beets are my favorite (and less detectable to beet-haters).
beth1 at 7:59PM on 08/27/08
@joanpieroni - we have beautiful candy stripe beets right here in ny state.... but maybe it's easier to get them shipped from california.
migliorelli farm in dutchess county grows the candystripe, along with white and yellow beets. all varieties are extremely delicious.
your salad sounds delicious btw. love the combination of orange & olive oil myself.
pooch at 11:04PM on 09/01/08
My cousin, a professional chef, makes a salad of roasted red and yellow beets with Spanish manchebo cheese (not manchego, this is different--get it at Whole Foods or Wegman's), drizzled with a balasamic vinegar reduction. Beautiful and delicious.
foodexpert at 7:33AM on 09/02/08
I made this dish last week and it was an absolute knock-out. Easy to make (though my beets took almost twice as long to cook through), and I loved the heat of the peppers balanced against the mild sweetness of the yellow beets.
This makes a great side dish, but honestly, I was pretty happy just curling up with a bowl all by itself.
mrs_black at 12:17PM on 09/08/08
I love beets my kids use to not like them ,now they do,my grandchildren do but don't. Pickled is good. My kids called them black eggs,there not really black there pickled in a large pickle jar 1 1/2 boiled eggs pickle spice not much 1/3 cup or to your liking 1part vinegar 2 part water 3 to 4 cans off beats.
You can or not in a small pan spice and little water boil the pour in jar. and boiled peeled eggs,beets, water, set in icebox at least 24 Hr. or longer ., good for 3 weeks at least. we make this on holidays sometimes I just make a small jar. You can add any thing you like onion ex.... I like to no how they make cooked beet they seem to have a orange flavor to them.
Bambi jo
Bambijo at 2:14PM on 02/22/09