Simple Meals: Beet Salad
[Editor's note - I've been on a bit of hiatus, but I return to glory with this quick recipe. More soon.]
This is a somewhat austere example of what I was discussing a few weeks ago about a meal not needing to be a Meal.
Simply take a cooked beet, slice, and drizzle with olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Good over salad greens and with goat cheese, but it certainly doesn’t need to be embellished. Also makes a good antipasto.
Now I know you’re all asking yourselves the same question: Where does one get a cooked beet? Well, one thinks ahead a little bit.
I often pick up an extra thing or two at the farmer’s market to have lying around, and the other week it was a particular tasty looking beet. I cooked pasta one night, and after I removed the pasta from the water, I boiled a beet in it while I ate. I stuck it in the fridge, and two days later it was ready for my beet salad.
It’s little tricks like this for keeping quick meals around that keep me from ordering in all the time. You could also roast the beet whole with some potatoes or carrots or whatever else you happen to be cooking that week. You can roast or boil beets with the skin on and then peel them afterwards, which is a much easier and less messy job.
Not everyone likes beets, but if you put yourself in this category, I would urge you to try them again. America’s salad bars are plagued with lousy canned beets, and I think a lot of people will reconsider the beet when they taste a well prepared one. A caveat, however: This salad might not be the best way to introduce folks to beets. It is, for lack of a better word, very beety. For amateurs, I would recommend peeling the beets and then roasting them in olive oil and salt for about an hour. They’ll taste like candy.
I hate the canned beets on the salad bar, so when I got beets on a salad at one of my favorite restaurants I nearly picked them out. Then I thought, “I’m here because I like the food, I should give it a try.” It was like a whole different food.
Next time I’m at the market I’m going to grab myself one and give it a shot. So really, an hour? That seems long. Maybe I’ll try it on the grill. It’s getting warm enough I should be pulling it out of the garage soon.
Drew
http://blog.CookLikeYourGrandmother.com
i’ve roasted beets in their skins twice like that (with EVOO, er, olive oil, and salt). they definitely take a while. a question for the junta- the recipes i have seen imply that the skin will be easy to remove once the beet is cooked. in my experience, though, the skin kind of merges with the beet, so it is hard to peel without feeling like you’re wasting precious beet. am i doing something wrong? ring a bell?
I’ve only ever boiled beets, but the skins definitely come off easily afterward. The trick is you have to rub the skin off with a paper towel. In my experience, at least, I’ve just endlessly struggled when I tried to remove them with my hands. I assume the same holds true for roasting. Not the most eco-friendly solution, but the best one I’ve found.
Tossing hot beets directly into ice water is also supposed to help loosen the skin.
You might try Chioggia beets. Less messy than usual and sweeter, if that can be believed. Try roasting them with a splash of water in a baking dish in a 375 F oven for 45 minutes to one hour. Be sure to cover the baking dish with aluminum foil. The skins should slip right off.
Link here: http://spamwise.wordpress.com/2008/03/13/dinner-improv/