Beetroot and horseradish dip

This is very simple, but really surprisingly tasty. I don't know if it was a fluke, but the amount of horseradish came out just perfect: fiery but softened by the earthy beet and creamy yoghurt.

approx. 4 medium beetroots
3/4 cup skyr
2-3 1 cm cubes of peeled horseradish
lime juice
salt

Boil the beets whole until tender, then let cool (do this in advance if you like). Peel (the skins should just slip off) and chop into large chunks. Blend together with the remaining ingredients, adding skyr/yoghurt until the consistency is as you like it, and adding salt/lime juice to taste. Eat with veg sticks or crackers or bread.

Toasting giant couscous / revisiting reliable recipes

I have been making a lot of things over again: as vegetable friends I haven't seen since last year turn up in the CSA I have been tending to return to things I made before and liked. Improvements and refinements instead of novelties. Also lots of salad. Familiarity feels good.

Beetroot (OK these haven't been absent since last year, but we have been getting a lot of them recently):
This is my favourite way of cooking beets. Becomes an instant salad if you peel+mash the roasted garlic, mix it through with some extra balsamic, let cool and keep in the fridge.

Carrot greens: I have never really prepped them any way other than this paste, because it's so so good.

Basil: pistachio pesto - need I say more?

Cucumbers+tomatoes: overnight couscous (and quicker variant)

Aubergines: caponata - excellent, especially with toasted couscous (see below); baba; miso aubergine

Courgettes, fennel, aubergines, peppers: roasted veg with harissa dressing and couscous / wheatberries (or, lately, orzo)

Peppers: muhammara

Yes, and, that giant couscous I mentioned - I have always found it a bit bland, and obviously it lacks the ready-in-ten-minutes-with-no-pans-involved charm of normal couscous. So this time I tried toasting it with a little olive oil in the pan for a few minutes, until lightly browned, before adding the water and cooking as usual (finishing with salt, pepper, olive oil and white wine). Sooooo much tastier! Definitely recommended if you have a few extra minutes!

Beetroot and orange salad

A said she found beetroot inspiration (beetspiration?) on here the other day, which in turn inspired me to make something with the candycane beetroots festering in my fridge.

Of course they keep pretty much forever so no rush (same with the oranges), but I've been on a bit of a using-up kick so it felt good to eat them up.

I have been down on candycane beetroot of late - you just cannot cook them as they lose their pattern and colour and their flavour isn't as intense as the fully-pink ones either. But if you keep them raw they are lovely, so if you have candycane (Chioggia) beetroot this salad is the right sort of thing to do.

juice and zest of 1 orange (ended up with zest of normal orange and juice of Seville orange)
1/4 clove garlic, crushed with salt
1 tsp pomegranate molasses (or honey - if using honey and normal orange juice add a squeeze of lemon as well)
1 tsp white miso
2 tbsp olive oil
4 small beetroot (mine were candycane and very pretty but normal would be fine too), peeled and cut into matchsticks
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks
1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
handful of chopped coriander
Put the orange juice and zest in a small bowl and mix in the crushed garlic. Add pomegranate molasses, miso and olive oil and whisk together to make the dressing. Set aside. 

Prepare the beetroot and carrot and put the matchsticks in a serving bowl. Add the sesame seeds and coriander, then tip the dressing in and mix well. Good immediately or after being in the fridge overnight (perhaps keep the sesame seeds and coriander separately if overnight is the plan).


This was nice. The Seville oranges contain masses of juice so it ended up quite juicy and sharp - think this would be softened if normal orange was used, probably no bad thing. Very pretty - striped beetroot, orange, green and seeds; just enough crunch.

Dry beetroot coconut curry

I was thinking about India. Probably the best meal I had in ~3 months there was a thali at a place overlooking a temple bathing tank, in Varkala (Kerala). All the places along the beach were very touristy and the food not very veg and not very interesting, so we had ended up walking inland in search of something more exciting. The place was small and simple; we sat on a palm-roofed terrace watching a family of feral cats play around our feet. Eventually they brought this amazing thali, with very coconutty, South Indian, interesting curries. The one I remember so clearly was a dry curry of shredded beetroot and shredded coconut - beautiful, full of earthy sweetness and texture, and so unlike anything I'd eaten before.

I thought I'd try and recreate it with our latest haul of CSA beetroot. The fridge was starting to look bare after a few weeks of soup and using up, and those beets were almost the last thing to get through. Actually, I think what reminded me of that place / that thali was making my favourite dry cabbage curry the other day - it is similar in spicing and texture and use of coconut to what I remember of the beetroot one. So I thought I'd try something a bit like it - definitely using shredded coconut, curry leaves and mustard seed... I ended up using this recipe, as it sounded much like my memory.

1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped into large chunks
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
~1/2 tbsp water
1-2 tbsp coconut oil
3 curry leaves
1 tsp chana dal (aka yellow split peas; increase to 1 tbsp if you don't have urad dal)
1 tbsp urad dal (subbed mung beans but this wasn't awesome - make sure to use shelled dal)
1 tsp brown mustard seeds
1-2 tsp red chilli flakes
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 small onion, finely sliced
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 medium-large beetroot, grated
~1/3 cup dried shredded coconut (unsweetened; fresh probably better if you can get it)
salt

Put the ginger, garlic and water in a blender and pulse until it becomes a paste - add just enough water to make it work / become paste.

Heat the oil in a good-sized frying pan. Add the curry leaves, chana dal, urad dal (if using), mustard seeds, cumin seeds and chilli flakes and stir-fry until fragrant. Add the onion and the garlic-ginger paste. Once the onion is translucent, add in the turmeric and the grated beetroot. Stir-fry until beets are almost dry then add in the coconut and mix. Taste and add salt to taste. Turn off the heat.


We ate with brown rice, sprinkled with chopped fresh coriander, with a splash of vinegar and some coconut cream on the side. yummmm. S thought it could have been more coconutty - I guess you could add more shredded coconut or some coconut cream - but I was pretty happy with it.

Note, I am actually growing to love turmeric - I'd always thought of it as mainly a colouring agent, but while the colour is definitely fantastic the smell and flavour are wonderful too.

Apple, kohlrabi, beetroot, leaves and seeds

A daydream of a salad: we had lots of salad greens, but the apple, beetroot and anise were begging to play together. Kohlrabi, onion, poppy and pumpkin seeds jumped into the mix...

2 small apples, peeled and cored
1/4 of a giant kohlrabi, peeled
1 small beetroot (I used candy striped but any would be fine), peeled
juice of 1/2 lemon
~3 handfuls of salad leaves (any)
~1 tbsp poppy seeds
~2 tsp anise seeds
1-2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
~1/2 tbsp finely chopped white onion
2 tsp white miso
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
1-2 tbsp olive oil
black pepper

Cut the apple, kohlrabi and beetroot into matchsticks. Squeeze a bit of lemon juice over the apple to stop it going brown. Wash the salad leaves and put them in a serving bowl. Add the apple, kohlrabi, beetroot and seeds. In a separate, small bowl, mix the chopped onion with the rest of the lemon juice, miso, honey, vinegar and olive oil, beat together and taste for seasoning. When ready to eat, pour the dressing over the assembled salad and mix well.


And this turned out delicious. Really pretty: colourful beetroot, shards of apple and kohlrabi, speckles of seeds. Just enough sweetness, loads of textures and crunch. The anise, apple, beet and greens go great together, with the pumpkin and poppy seeds providing an earthiness to counteract the sweet. Love how exciting salads can be, whatever the weather (yesterday super windy and below zero).

Beetroot and pistachio dip

This morning I was putting my box of dried fruit and nuts back on a high shelf and somehow managed to bust open a full bag of pistachios over my head. Pistachio rain for breakfast.

The plus side is that those plummeting pistachios combined with seeing this and eating some tasty pink stuff (made by D+K) during our woods picnic the other day inspired me to make a beetroot dip. Beetroot gets on well with most nuts, but I've never really explored its affinity with pistachios - those colours and textures have got to be amazing together, though, right?

1 large beetroot
2 small cloves garlic, peeled
2 tbsp olive oil
2/3 packet (~250 g) shelf-stable silken tofu
1-2 tsp lime (or lemon) juice
salt and pepper
~3 tbsp pistachios

Heat the oven to 350F. Wrap the beetroot in foil. Put (on a baking tray) in the oven for ~45 min, until just tender. Remove and let cool. Do this step in advance if you can.

Peel the beetroot and chop roughly. Put into blender with garlic, olive oil, tofu, lime juice, salt and pepper. Blend until fairly smooth and well combined. Tip out of blender into serving plate or tub.

Crush the pistachios using pestle and mortar (or roughly chop). Sprinkle over the beetroot mixture just before serving.


This is nice - colours and textures beautiful as predicted, and I like how using relatively few ingredients means you can taste each one clearly: sharp garlic, pungent olive oil, sweet beetroot, creaminess from the tofu and the crunch and richness of the pistachios are all detectable individually as well as working beautifully together.

Beetroot, lentils and wheatberries

This is a meal in a bowl, with all sorts of depths and exciting tastes and textures and colours. You might call it a salad? It comes together really quickly if you have the beetroot, lentils and wheatberries (or you could sub chickpeas and brown rice) already cooked and in the fridge. I had baked the beetroot while I had the oven on to roast some other veg a couple of days ago, so when I wanted to eat this I just had to cook the lentils and wheatberries and prep the other stuff. If I'd done the lentils and wheatberries previously it would have been even faster; as it was the remaining food prep pretty much fitted into the time they were cooking, so still quite speedy.

Baked beetroot:
~5 medium beetroot, washed and trimmed
few sprigs thyme
3-4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp water
salt+pepper

Boiled lentils and wheatberries:
1 cup wheatberries
1 cup brown or green lentils
1 bay leaf
stock powder

Seeds, herbs and spices:
1 tbsp coriander seed
1 tsp cumin seed
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp sunflower seeds
1/2 tbsp sesame seeds
zest of 1/2 a lemon
1-2 tbsp chives, chopped
1-2 tbsp parsley, chopped
1 tbsp mint, chopped

Dressing:
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 tsp white miso
1-2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper

To prepare the beetroot, heat the oven to 400F. Wash the beetroot thoroughly and trim. Chop into large / even sized chunks (in half or quarters) and put in a lidded ovenproof dish. Add whole, peeled garlic cloves, thyme (fresh or dried), seasoning, olive oil and water. Put the lid on, put in the oven and bake for 30-40 min, until tender to the point of a knife. Remove from the oven, let cool, then cut into chunky dice.

Put the lentils in a small pan with enough water to cover them by 1cm. Add the bay leaf and a sprinkling of stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for ~30 min, until done. Put the wheatberries in a different pan with ~1 1/2 cups water and a sprinkling of stock. Bring to the boil and simmer 25-30 min, until tender.

Heat a frying pan and dry fry the coriander and cumin seed until fragrant. Let cool a little, then transfer to a spice mill and grind. In the same pan, dry toast the sunflower and sesame seeds until lightly golden and starting to pop. Chop the herbs and zest the lemon.

In a serving bowl, beat the dressing ingredients together with a fork. Add the cooked, still warm wheatberries and lentils and mix well together. Add the beetroot (and garlic and juices) and ground spices and toss some more. Check it is not too hot, then, immediately before serving, add the toasted seeds and fresh herbs. Toss once more, taste and add more salt, pepper and balsamic if needed, and eat.


This is really hearty and versatile - an excellent Autumn / Winter salad protocol. Versions of this have been seeing me right for weeks, as lunches and quick dinners. So long as I have some cooked lentils and wheatberries (or other grain) in the fridge, plus some kind of roasted veg - this week it is butternut squash roasted with za'atar - I can grab some herbs from my pots and mix this up in minutes.

Easiest beetroot prep: beetroot and brazil nut salad

Beetroot is so beautiful, so tasty, and even comes as two veg in one: greens plus roots. Here is my usual, simplest way to prep the roots - once they are cooked they peel very easily, and can be thrown in any kind of salad or grain dish. Like the one below.

Beetroot prep
 
Separate the beetroot from the greens (save the greens for something else). Scrub the beetroot (but don't peel), then put in a small saucepan and fill with water so covered by about an inch. Cover, bring to the boil, and simmer for 20-30 min, until a pointy knife tip goes in easily (ie they are tender). Drain the beetroot, leave to cool and refrigerate until needed.

Beetroot and brazil nut salad

~6 small beetroot, prepped in advance as above
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
salt+pepper
~10 brazil nuts, chopped
1 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
2 tsp fresh chives, finely chopped
~8 leaves crunchy Romaine lettuce, roughly chopped

Peel the beetroot: the peel should just slide off as you rub your fingers along them. Dice the naked beetroot into large chunks. Put mustard, maple syrup, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper in a medium serving bowl, then beat together with a fork. Add the diced beetroot and toss, then add the remaining ingredients and toss some more.


Herb combinations can be varied: chives alone, parsley alone, coriander or mint would all be good. the lettuce is optional (although the dressing quantities could be halved if not using). The nuts can also be subbed: walnuts instead, or toasted pumpkin seeds, or nigella seeds.

Kale-beetroot-brazil nut salad

From this recipe:

2 tsp wholegrain mustard
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
3-4 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper
1 bunch kale, washed and finely chopped
2 large beetroot, boiled until tender, peeled and diced
1 spring onion, finely sliced
~10 brazil nuts, chopped

Mix the dressing (mustard, vinegar, oil and seasoning) in the bottom of a large bowl. Add the shredded kale, diced beetroot, spring onion and brazil nuts and toss until the kale is all coated with dressing. Best eaten after sitting for an hour or so - will keep in the fridge for a few days.


The best thing about this recipe is the discovery that beetroot and brazil nuts go really well together.

Valentines Biscuits III: Cardamom and rose hearts

I made these once before, before I started this. They are, to my mind, the quintessential kitschy Valentines baked goods: cute, tiny, tasty, flowery, and very, very pink (it takes very little beetroot juice to make a really pink icing: you don't taste the beetroot at all but oh my word you can see it). I think cardamom and rose go great together, and a box of tiny biscuits makes a great friend-Valentine.

Biscuits:
4 oz plain flour
small pinch salt
1/2 tsp powdered cardamom
2 1/2 oz margarine
1 oz sugar
1/4 tbsp rose water
1/4 tbsp water

Icing:
1 tsp finely grated raw beetroot
1/2 tsp water
1/2 tsp rose water
4 tbsp icing sugar

Finishing:
petals from 1 dried rosebud
seeds from 2 green cardamom pods

Heat oven to 350F / 180C. Mix flour, salt and cardamom in a bowl with a fork. Rub in butter until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in sugar, then add rose water and water and knead to a smooth dough.

Roll out thinly on a floured surface, cut into hearts (I happen to have three different sizes of heart cutters nowadays, but previously I have freehanded heart shapes with a knife) and place on greased baking sheets. Bake for 15-20 min and cool on a wire rack.

For the icing, mix the beetroot and water, leave for a minute or two, then squeeze all the liquid out of the beetroot and transfer to a fresh bowl. Add rose water and icing sugar to the beetroot water, check it is a good spreading consistency, then use to ice the cooled biscuits. Finally, grind the rose petals and cardamom seeds together and sprinkle a little on top of each biscuit.


Notes: this basic recipe (based on one from the WI Book of Biscuits - same source as this recipe) is the best I've tried so far for cutting shapes, and it has plenty of scope for varying the spices, shapes and flavourings. It rolls thin so you get a lot of biscuits out of this amount - I must have got about 30 tiny hearts and about 10 bigger ones out of this quantity.

Beetroot soup

We had a lot of beetroot, thanks to A. They were a different variety than the last lot: the shape was longer and the colour lighter. After the watermelon radish I half expected to cut into them to find something surprising (Chioggia?), but they were just plain old beets. Not that I am complaining, I love the good old deep pink ones the best. I have been reminding myself to save some for something Valentines pink, and made some into dip at the weekend, but most of the rest became soup last night, in a flurry of slow-cooked comfort food making that also featured mixed grains and sweet and sour red lentils. It's not incredibly cold any more (back up to -3C), but the constant chilliness is starting to drag a little, despite it no longer being January and it almost being still light at 5pm...

S suggested Borscht at the weekend, so I wanted to do something a bit like a borscht. I knew most were with meat, didn't know that most also contain cabbage, carrots etc. Fancied something a little simpler and totally beetroot-focused, and came across this recipe - based it on that.

2 tbsp olive oil
3/4 tsp caraway seeds
3/4 tsp brown mustard seeds
3/4 tsp cumin seeds
2 small onions, peeled and chopped
1 lb fresh beetroot, peeled and grated
1-2 bay leaves
4 cups veg stock
1 1/2 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp dark soy sauce
salt+pepper

horseradish to serve - or horseradish yoghurt (recommended! 4 tsp grated fresh horseradish mixed with 1/2 cup plain yoghurt)

Heat oil in a large saucepan with a lid. Add seeds and fry until fragrant and starting to pop (about a minute). Add onion, cover and cook til softened. Add beetroot, bay leaves and stock. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Add vinegar, soy sauce and salt and pepper, taste and add a little more if needed. Serve hot, with a tsp or so of prepared horseradish from a jar swirled into the middle.


Something simple and earthy becomes something vibrant and wonderful with the addition of vinegar, caraway and horseradish - I can see why borscht is so popular and so divisive. Now I am daydreaming about more of this for dinner, this time with gnocchi cooked in it and chopped fresh coriander on top... And I did that, and it felt like the best idea for a quick, warming, light Winter supper. I should really make soup more often.

Beetroot, horseradish and pumpkin seed dip

We bought some bread and a spicy red (unlabelled) dip from the Turkish store and I promised S I'd make more dips when we got home.

I did a muhammara and a version of baba ghanoush. I also made a beetroot dip. I've made beetroot dip before and it great, but that was ages ago - thought it was time for a revisit...

2 large beetroot, scrubbed
3 tbsp fresh coriander, washed
3 tbsp prepared horseradish from a jar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
3-4 tbsp pumpkin seeds, toasted
1 small clove garlic, peeled
1 tbsp olive oil
juice of 1/2 a lime
salt+pepper

Submerge the whole beetroot in a pan of water and boil for 45 min - an hour, until a fork goes in easily. Drain and allow to cool. Peel and chop roughly. Put beetroot pieces in a blender cup with the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth. Taste and add more horseradish, lime or salt if needed.

Note: could also be good with toasted walnuts instead of pumpkin seeds.

Colourful, robust winter salads

We ended up eating at / from Whole Foods quite a lot while we were out West. It was S's idea. We arrived in Vegas and had one very uninspired meal with awful service, and then he had the idea of looking for local Whole Foods (apparently his buddy who runs learning-to-play-poker courses there stocks up at Whole Foods before getting going on the poker). We found a huge one in Henderson, and that was us sorted for the next few days.

A recurring Whole Foods salad theme was mixed grains and pulses. Which put me in the mood for more on our return. Here are a couple of variants:


Giant couscous, lentils, rice, cranberries and pumpkin seeds

3/4 cup giant / Israeli couscous, cooked in 1 cup water with 1/4 tsp turmeric for colour
1/2 cup brown and/or wild rice, cooked in 1 cup water
3/4 cup brown lentils, cooked in 1 1/2 cups veg stock with a bay leaf
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted
~8 salty black olives, chopped
~2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
olive oil
red wine vinegar
salt+pepper
wholegrain mustard
maple syrup

Mix olive oil, vinegar, mustard, maple syrup and seasoning in a medium bowl to make the dressing. Add the cooked, cooled couscous, rice and lentils and toss. Add the cranberries, pumpkin seeds, olives and coriander and mix up again. Taste to check seasoning / that there is enough dressing.


Massive couscous (moghrabieh), chickpeas, beetroot and sesame

3/4 cup moghrabieh, cooked in 1 cup water with 1/2 tsp turmeric for colour
1 cup chickpeas, cooked and defrosted
2-3 medium beetroot, boiled until tender, cooled and diced into ~1 cm dice
~2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
1 tsp white sesame seeds
1 tsp black sesame seeds
1/2 tsp nigella seeds
juice of 1/2 lime
olive oil
red wine vinegar
salt+pepper

Put the pre-cooked and cooled couscous, chickpeas and chopped beetroot in a bowl, add the seeds and coriander and toss. Then add the dressing ingredients: oil, vinegar, lime juice, salt+pepper, quantities to taste (use plenty), toss and eat.

Beetroot seed cake

I'd bookmarked this cake a while back, then ended up with some eggs (beautiful multi-coloured ones, thanks to D+K's tempura making), and was daydreaming about making it when along came Alvin with a bag of beetroot among this week's bounty.

'Frankenstorm' Sandy is due to hit us tomorrow, in fact today already felt wild and stormy - the winds are rising and squalling, and showers are whipping our apartment building - so I am getting apprehensive about what tomorrow might have in store for us. I've moved all my plants down off the roof and filled all the large plastic bottles I can find with water. S was concerned we might run out of food: this cake should, as well as satisfying my love of beetroot and nagging urge to follow that recipe, keep us going in the event of mishap.

For the cake:
butter or oil, for greasing
225g/8oz self-raising flour (used plain, plus 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
(1/2 tsp ground ginger)
180ml/6¼fl oz sunflower oil (used veg oil)
225g/8oz light muscovado sugar (used a mixture of brown and granulated)
3 eggs, separated (used 2 large eggs plus 1 tbsp linseed / 2.5 tbsp hot water mix)
150g/5oz raw beetroot, peeled
juice of half a lemon
75g/3oz sultanas or raisins (used golden raisins)
75g/3oz mixed seeds (such as sunflower, pumpkin and linseed) (used golden linseed, pumpkin seed and poppy seeds)

For the icing:
8 tablespoons icing sugar
 a little lemon juice or orange blossom water
poppy seeds, to garnish

Heat the oven at 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease a rectangular loaf tin (20cm x 9cm x 7cm/8in x 4in x 3in), and line the base with baking paper.

Mix together with a fork the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger.

In a separate bowl, beat the oil and sugar until well combined, then mix in the linseed mixture, followed by the egg yolks one by one. Grate the beetroot coarsely and fold it into the egg mixture, then add the lemon juice, sultanas / raisins and the assorted seeds, and mix. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Beat the egg whites until light and almost stiff. Fold gently but thoroughly into the cake mixture, using a large metal spoon (a wooden one will knock the air out). Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 50-55 minutes, covering the top with a piece of foil after thirty minutes. Test with a skewer for doneness. The cake should be moist inside but not sticky. Leave the cake to settle for a good twenty minutes before turning out of its tin onto a wire cooling rack.

To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and stir in enough lemon juice or orange blossom water to achieve a consistency where the icing will run over the top of the cake and drizzle slowly down the sides (about three teaspoonfuls), stirring to remove any lumps. Drizzle it over the cake and scatter with the poppy seeds. Leave to set before eating.


It's quite lovely: bejewelled with deep pink beetroot, golden raisins, emerald pumpkin seeds... They taste great together too - layers of sweet earthiness. Only thing is, it is a little greasy (another time try less oil / a little more linseed mixture, beetroot, lemon or milk). During the assembly process I kept thinking it was going wrong as it often seemed unfamiliar in texture and consistency, but it came out ok. Might be good with orange zest+juice instead of the lemon juice. I iced half and left the rest un-iced (it makes a big loaf cake, a half quantity would be loads for just us in non emergency situations), both were good. I usually wouldn't bother icing a cake like this but fancied trying the orange blossom water. I've generally found orange blossom water perfumey and hard to work with, but here it actually works out being quite pleasant.

Roasted beetroot with garlic, thyme and balsamic

More beetroot, this time roasted (based on this).

6-8 medium-small beetroot, washed thoroughly, top-and-tailed, and any very ugly / hairy / dirty bits of peel removed (go the whole hog and remove all the peel if you feel like it)
6 cloves garlic, unpeeled
4-6 sprigs thyme
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp water
salt+pepper
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Heat oven to 400F. Cut the beetroot into evenly sized wedges. Put them in a lidded oven dish. Push the garlic cloves and thyme sprigs into spaces between the beetroot wedges. Pour the water and olive oil over, season and put the lid on the dish. Put in the oven and leave for about an hour, until the beetroot is tender. Remove from the oven and pour over the balsamic vinegar. Remove the twiggy bits of the thyme, scraping them gently between the tines of a fork to encourage the leaves to stay in the dish. Peel the garlic, mash it a little, and return to the dish. Toss, and taste for seasoning.


This was good warm, but even better cold the next day: the flavours of the thyme and beetroot really stand up to each other well.

Autumn salad: beetroot, fennel, apple, seeds, crunch

A dropped off beetroot (the real pink deal this time) and mustard greens yesterday, and we talked about Borneo and SE Asian history. I sauteed some mustard greens simply with onion. As I biked home this salad emerged in my head as how I wanted to eat the beetroot - lots of raw, autumnal crunch:

1 large beetroot, peeled, top-and-tailed and cut into matchsticks
1/2 large bulb fennel, sliced into approximate matchsticks
plus 2 tbsp of fronds from the fennel, finely chopped
1/2 medium apple, cored and cut into matchsticks
1 heaped tsp poppy seeds
3/4 tsp white sesame seeds
3/4 tsp black sesame seeds
1/2 tsp nigella seeds (kalonji)
2 tbsp raisins, optional
juice of 1/2 a lime
2 tsp cider vinegar
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp sesame oil
3/4 tsp sugar
salt and pepper

Prepare the ingredients, put together in a bowl and mix.  Taste to check for seasoning, acidity and sweetness.


I really liked the seasonality, the sweet-tangy-earthiness, the colours, and of course the crunchiness of this. I decided to matchstick the beetroot instead of grating to keep the bleeding of colour a little bit under control, and that worked - the whiteness of fennel and apple was still visible. Although grating would have released more juice and made the beetroot softer - I relied on the acid to do this instead. I wasn't 100% on the raisins - they introduced sweetness and a different texture, but I also kind of liked it as an exclusively crunchy / seedy affair. Keeps well (perhaps even improves) in the fridge.

Golden salad

Once again, our regular weekly CSA gift from Alvin delivered something fun - this time, golden beets.  I haven't cooked them much, but boiled the bigger ones up at the weekend, and then began to nurture an image of a beautiful, golden, autumnal sunshine kind of salad, with plenty of sweetness (perhaps to note Rosh Hashanah and a sweet Jewish new year).  Pecans were a given, and I was thinking of cranberries, but when I pulled out my box of dried stuff the golden raisins were staring me in the face, and it seemed like it would be utterly fatuous not to use them.

4 medium-large golden beets
bunch of rocket leaves (from the roof!)
1 1/2 tbsp golden raisins
1 1/2 tbsp toasted pecan pieces

1 1/2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp cider vinegar
salt+pepper

Wash the beets and put them in a medium saucepan.  Cover with water.  Cover the pan and bring to the boil.  Boil until the beets are tender (about half an hour, give or take - depending on the size of the beets - test with the point of a knife).  Allow to cool to room temperature (this step is best done in advance - the whole cooked beets can be stored in the fridge for several days).

When ready to make the salad, peel the beets (the peel should come away pleasingly easily between your fingers) and chop them into chunks ~ 2 cm square.  Wash the rocket and tear into pieces, removing any tough stems.  Put the rocket and beets in a salad bowl and add the golden raisins and pecans.

To make the dressing, mix the mustard, honey, oil, vinegar and seasoning thoroughly in a small bowl.

When ready to eat, add the dressing to the salad bowl and toss.


This was a very pretty, very tasty salad.  I have been underwhelmed by golden beets previously but these had great taste and texture, and looked lovely.  I think my mistake in the past has been to mix them with regular beetroot - the taste and colour of normal beetroot (much though I love it) overpowered the golden ones.  Better to keep them separate to let them shine!

I think this salad would work just as well with red beetroot, spinach (or finely chopped parsley), cranberries and red wine vinegar instead of golden beets, rocket, golden raisins and cider vinegar.

Lentil curry with beetroot raita

This was what I felt like making when I got home through the rain.  I wasn't going to bother with the raita but then S wasn't home yet and I was waiting for things to cook and I thought yeah, why not.

250g large brown lentils
60g fresh ginger or galangal (used galangal), peeled and roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground coriander
3 tsp garam masala
2 small red chillies
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 tbsp veg oil
1 medium onion, finely sliced
400g can chopped tinned tomatoes

For the raita:
200g soft silken tofu
4 tbsp beetroot, coarsely grated
coriander, chopped
juice of 1/4 lime

Bring the lentils to the boil in a pan of deep, unsalted water, then let them simmer for 20-25 minutes, until they are quite soft.

Put the galangal into the blender with the garlic, cumin seeds, ground coriander, garam masala, red chillies, ground turmeric and enough water to make a soft, but not runny, paste.

Peel and finely slice the onion.  Warm a tbsp or two of oil in a medium saucepan over a moderate heat.  Add the onion and let it colour, stirring occasionally.  Then add the paste and stir / cook til fragrant.  Then add the tinned tomatoes and a can of water, salt, and the drained, cooked lentils and leave to simmer for half an hour or so. The lentils should be soft but still retaining a little of their texture; the sauce thick.

To make the raita, blend the tofu until smooth and put in a small bowl with the other ingredients and gently fold the beetroot through the smooth tofu with a fork (don't over mix).


We ate it with brown rice, and it was good.  Homely and comforting and exciting all at once.  Glad to use some galangal at last.  And the tofu-beetroot raita turned out way better than I expected.

Chocolate Beetroot Cake

the last piece - saved for S

I quite like putting vegetables in cake.  Carrot cake is so ubiquitous that I find it surprising that more veg don't find their way into cake form.  In the past I have caked courgettes, pumpkin (both fairly widely used), parsnips, sweet potato, and beetroot.  As is becoming increasingly obvious through these last few posts, I love beetroot, in no small part because of its awesome colour.  But also because of its sweet-earthy taste, robust texture, and versatility...  In previous cake experiments I had used the beetroot raw and grated, which gave pleasing little pops of pink, but I hoped for something more eye-catching.  I wondered if cooking and pureeing first might be the answer, and liked the idea of combining it with chocolate and dark berries.  This was for another work birthday - Nik.  Which also seems to be marking a year of vegan baking (since this one).

I veganised this recipe, and used this icing, adding creme de cassis to thin it instead of fake milk.  The icing was a tactical decision - I knew it worked awesomely before, and that it could be used to cover up minor cake-shape problems.

85 g dark chocolate
3 tbsp ground linseed, mixed with 9 tbsp boiling water
300 g sugar
240 ml vegetable oil
300 g cooked, pureed beetroot
1 tsp vanilla essence
30 g cocoa powder
200 g flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Heat oven to 350F.

Melt the chocolate. In a separate bowl, whisk together the linseed-water mix, sugar and oil. Slowly add in the cooked beetroot puree, melted chocolate and vanilla. Beat until just combined.

Mix the cocoa, flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt with a fork in a separate bowl. Add this to the beetroot batter. Fold until just combined.

Spread a teaspoon of oil over the surface of a springform cake tin. Sprinkle some flour all over, and tap out the excess. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin. Bake for about 50 minutes, or till a skewer comes out clean.

When the cake is done, cool it on a wire rack (remove the ring after 15 min or so to allow better cooling.


When the cake was completely cool I cut it in two so that I could sandwich fill it with this icing (made while the cake was baking, then refrigerated til needed and thinned to a spreadable consistency with creme de cassis). I also covered the top and sides with icing, and then decorated the top with natural coloured cherries and red baker's crystals.

It came out as a dense, brownie-like cake.  It sank a little in the centre, but I was able to hide that with the filling and frosting.  Quite a good cake, although I was a bit disappointed that the beetroot colour didn't come out more - in fact the chocolate was quite overwhelming - the cinnamon came out slightly but the creme de cassis was quite hidden too.  I don't think anyone guessed there were beets in the cake or that there was tofu in the icing!  Also, note that I think this icing should be used just before serving - I iced it a couple of hours in advance and the icing had started to crack slightly by the time we ate it.

Beetroot and orange relish

Got lots of beetroot - was really in the mood for it.  I made this relish once, a while ago, and I remember it being really good - the recipe is on a scrap of paper, thought it would be good to write it down before I lose it.

1 lb beetroot
1 lb onions, chopped
2 oranges, grated rind and juice
1 tsp salt
6 star anise
1 tsp fennel seeds
350g / 3/4 lb sugar
570ml / 1 pint pickling vinegar

1) Put beetroot in large pan and cover with cold water.  Simmer until tender.  Drain, peel and chop roughly into small pieces.

2) Put all other ingredients into a large pan and bring slowly to the boil.  Simmer until it reaches a good consistency.  Test for seasoning.  Pour into sterilised jars.


Edit: yummmm, this is just as good as I remembered - the beet/anise/orange/sweet/acid combination is a party in the mouth...  The colour was different than I remembered - I think I must have used some fancy vinegar when I made it before - this version was very very pink and looks like jewels or sweeties.  Made a fantastic sandwich with Romaine lettuce, tahini and dry tofu, on olive and sesame bread.