Friday, November 6, 2009

Beetroot and ginger salad


A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting my friend Ashley in Jamaica, and she introduced me to a roasted beet (marinated in ginger and balsamic vinegar) salad. The beets (which, by the way, have become one of my favourite things to eat) had a sweet, caramelised flavour, which worked really well with the zingy ginger. So I deided to give that recipe a try tonight. But here's the problem: I haven't been able to figure out how to light the oven of my new cooker (mentioned in earlier blog). It's a lame excuse, and a growing source of frustration because I love baking things in the oven. So I decided to do a raw version of the salad. And it was delicious and super easy to make.


So here's what you'll need:
1 large fresh beetroot (the size of a big clenched fist) - I use a mandolin to finely julienne the beet
2 inches of fresh ginger finely grated
2 tablespoons each balsamic vinegar and olive oil
a healthy pinch of salt

Make sure you thoroughly wash the beet. Thinly slice or julienne the beetroot (I leave the skin on, but if you'd prefer to peel it go ahead). In a bowl mix all the dressing ingredients together including the grated ginger, and toss the beetroot in the dressing. Serve it chilled.

Another thing to remember is to serve the beetroot salad in a separate bowl. I can't bear it when the pink juice of beets bleeds into other vegetables, so I always serve the salad separately.

I hope you like it.





3 comments:

  1. Could you share Ashley's cooked version, please?
    BTW, we've been lucky enough here to get some amazing heritage varieties of beetroot: golden beets, pink & white striped (when cut across), and some others I can't remember. They're really divine -- raw golden beets are my new favourite. Along with raw purple carrots (purple outside only).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shivaun - okay, you peel the beets and in this recipe you slice them into just shy of quarter inch thick slices. Then you toss the slices in the olive oil, balsamic, ginger and salt mixture. And bake them in the oven at 350 (ash thinks, but I think more like 400) for half hour. We had them served cold in a romano and feta salad.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yum. Will try it.
    BTW, made the flat-leaf parsley pesto, using walnuts, lemon juice, garlic (modest amount, for a change), olive oil and parmesan -- yummy, but not a strong flavour. More of adding a layer of something extra than making a statement in itself. I had it as a spread on a sandwich for lunch today (egg, green onion & lettuce) and that worked well.

    ReplyDelete