Beeeeeeeeeeeeetroooooot forever!
Beetroot is one of my favourite vegetables. Its sweetness and the slight taste of soil, the wonderful colour, the cute round appearance – all that is a challenge to enhance or combine it when I cook winter dinners.I chose three very simple recipies for my post: the first one is a beetroot spread which enhances the sweet taste of the beet through lemon or lime and shapes their character with a hot aspect of red chili pepper. The second one is a beetroot pumkin soup with a slight touch of curry and cinamon, which emphasises their sweetness and the manifold possibilities to combine it. And the third one - my alltime favourite – is a beetroot salad with a fine tuned mustard-honey-apple-lemon dressing. All three dishes are very simple to duplicate, simple and handsome like their main ingredient: the beetroot.
No1: Beetroot spread
For a small appetizer you need 1 up to 2 beetroots, depending on their size. Cook the beetroots - without the peel - "al dente" in enough very salty water and a small red hot chili pepper without the pits. If the chili is very hot, only take a half. Let the vegetables cool down. Cut them into small slices, add a good amount of seesalt of necessary and a very little piece of garlic as well as two tea spoons of lime juice, the same amount of fine light olive oil and a half teaspoon of fresh cut lemon peel.
Depending on the size of your beetroots change the amount of the olive oil. Put all the ingredienst in a mixer an purée it until you got a fine, smooth spread. Let the spread rest for minimum 2 hours. Taste it agian and add some more sea salt if you like. Normally the sweetness of the beetroot takes a huge amount of salt.
No2: Beetroot-pumpkin soup
For the beetroot pumkin soup for around 3 up to 4 persons as an entrée you need the following ingredients:• a small half a big/one very little hoakido pumpkin
• 2 big beetroots
• 3 red onions
• 1 boskop apple
• 0,25 liter of white wine with a strong acid
• 0,25 liter of apple juice
• 0,25 liter of hot water
• 2 branch of thyme (one for decoration)
• 1 leave of laurel
• 1 red hot chili in the whole
• 1 glove of garlic
• 1 teaspoon of hot indian curry
• knife point of cinamon
• black crushed pepper and seasalt
• sour cream
Peel the onions, the garlic and the apple. Cut everything into small pieces. Same thing with the hokaido and the peeled beetroots.
Heat 3 soup spoons of olive oil in a big pot and roast onions, apple and garlic gently in it. Before the ingredients became brown deglaze them with the wine and put the lid on for 7 minutes. Add all other ingredients and let the soup cook very slowly until the vegetables are done as you like it. After everything is ready remove the laurel, the chili and the thyme branch.
You can purée this soup or eat it with the vegetable pieces. Bevor serving it, add a spoon of sourcream on top and decorate it with a few thyme leaves.
No3: Beetroot salad
For the beetroot salad as an entrée for 4 people you need the following ingredients:• 2 beetroots
• 4 leaves of raddichio
• sea salt as you like
• 3 teaspoons of a fine, hot french mustard
• 1 teaspoon of a strong dark honey
• black crushed pepper
• 1 teaspoon of lime juice
• 2 teaspoon of white soft vinegar
• 6 soup spoons of fine olive oil
For the second oil on the radicchio:
• about 10 crushed salted pistachios
• 6 soup spoons of fine pistachio oil
• 2 branches of parsley
Cook the beetroots with the peel on in water until they are not just done (al dente). Let them cool down and peel them. Cut the vegetables into small long pieces. Out of all the other ingredients of the first part mix a fine dressing, and oversalt it slightly. The beetroot will need a lot of sea salt, as already mentioned before. Put the dressing over the beetroot slices, cover the bowl and let it rest over night, but not in the fridge!
Wash the raddicio and cut in into very fine slices. Out of the 3 last ingredients mix a fine pistacchio oil. Stir the beetroot salad before serving and add salt as you like. Arrange the beetroot salad in the middle, the rdicchio slices around it. pure the pistacchio oil over the radicchio.
dolce vita ahoi • monika ebert • mobile minds