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New year, New recipes. Part 3. Roasted beetroot

One of the great joys of food is to discover that you like something that you thought that you hated.
I grew up thinking that the only way you get beetroot was the pickled variety in a jar.

I associate it with that 1960’s version of a salad that consists of sliced ham, iceberg lettuce, whole tomatoes, cucumber, salad cream and the offending purple golf ball that leaked its stain all across everything in sight. I hated it.

Thanks to Jamie I discovered roasted beetroot, which I think is a bit of a revelation particularly with seared fillet of beef.

I have one way of preparing and two way of serving them.



To prepare



Take a bunch of fresh beetroot (6 or 7 bulbs) and trim the leaves and tail off and scrub lightly to clean any remaining dirt off.


Pre heat the oven to 180 deg


Put the bulbs in a roasting pan drizzle a tbs of olive oil in and roll the beetroot around in the oil until they are lightly coated.


Season with salt and pepper and chuck in some thyme leaves if you have them.


Cover the pan with foil and roast for approx 45 mins to 1 hour ( cooking time will depend on the size of the bulbs. They are cooked when you put a knife into the centre of a bulb and the the knife slides off easily)


Now take them out of the oven leave them to cool slightly.
Now chop into quarters and arrange artfully on a plate with some rocket.


Dress with either:



Horseradish sauce


Mix 1tbs prepared horseradish with 3 tbs greek yoghurt


or


Garlic Yoghurt


Crush a clove of garlic with some salt until it becomes a paste.


Mix in 3tbs greek yoghurt




Blob some of either sauce on each of the pieces of beetroot.

Drizzle the rocket and beetroot with a little extra virgin olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice.
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Comments

Elizabeth Sweeney said…
I love this recipe....I bought some of those delicious Gaylord Farm beets, plain, two coloured, and golden at the Farmers Market this summer! We had all those Bostonians up for a BBQ and there wasn't a beet left on the plate!
September 4, 2009 at 6:11 PM
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