Maple Roasted Baby Beet Salad with Horseradish Crème Fraîche, Dill and Beetroot Pickle
Beetroot, horseradish and dill – a tried and true perfect combination!
This salad started it’s life off as a tart; rich buttery pastry filled with a roasted beetroot and crème fraîche. It tasted great but it was the filling that was really the standout. Considering making pastry involves a number of tedious steps, I thought why bother with the pastry when it really doesn’t need it? So I added a few salad leaves and fresh herb and viola it became a salad! I admit a rather indulgent rich salad but I totally stand by its status as a salad. I also added some thing;y sliced picked beetroot to add a little punch and contract to the rich earthiness of the roasted baby beets.
I highly recommend serving this salad with some Turkish bread pan-fried until golden and crispy in olive oil and salt. This also makes the salad a great starter for entertaining. Spread the salad out on a platter and let people dig in with the Turkish bread; a perfect platter to share over a glass of rosè or two with friends.
This salad looks impressive but is actually very easy to make (despite the long list of ingredients!) and everything can be well prepared in advance. There are at least four different herbs in this salad but don’t let that put you off - if you cant access all the herbs just use what you can. I am lucky enough to have an abundant supply of herbs in my garden but I know for many it can be hard to find tarragon or dill at your local supermarket – specially if you don’t want to pay a small fortune for a tiny sprig wrapped in plastic! Just use whatever herbs you have, though try and get dill if you can as dill and beetroot and pretty much best friends.
Maple Roasted Baby Beet Salad with Horseradish Crème Fraîche, Dill and Beetroot Pickle
Prep time: 1 hour plus cooking time
Makes: Serves 4-6
Dietary guide: This recipe is gluten free. For a vegan or FODMAP friendly adaptation, see the end of the recipe.
Ingredients
For the roasted beetroot
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 bunch of baby beetroots
1 ½ teaspoons of maple syrup
Salt and pepper
For the greens
2 large handfuls of fresh greens such as beetroot leaves, rocket or baby spinach or a mix
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
2 teaspoons of olive oil
Small handful of fresh mint leaves- ideally small leaves
1 small kohlrabi thinly sliced (optional)
For the horseradish crème fraîche
200ml of crème fraîche
3 teaspoons of prepared horseradish or 2 teaspoons of freshly grated horseradish
1 tablespoon of freshly chopped chives
1 ½ tablespoons of freshly chopped dill
2 teaspoons of chopped fresh tarragon
1 small clove of garlic
1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil
1/3 teaspoon of salt
Finely grated zest of 1 small unwaxed lemon
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
For the pickled beetroot
1 large beetroot
1 teaspoon of black pepper corns
60 ml champagne or white wine vinegar
50 ml of extra virgin olive oil
1 clove of garlic
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of sugar
Method
1. To roast the baby beetroots, pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees C. Cut off the beetroot stalks from both the baby beetroot and regular beetroot. Use a vegetable brush and/or a small knife/peeler to remove any tough skin from around the stalk area. Put the large beetroots aside and cut the baby beetroots long ways into quarters or half’s if very small. Place beetroot in a small oven tray with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and season. Mix well and cover the tray with foil and bake in the oven for about 50 minutes. After 50 minutes, test the beetroot to make sure it’s cooked – a knife should easily go in with just a little resistance (cook for longer if needed). Remove the foil and place the beetroot back in the oven uncovered for another 10-15 minutes to crisp the beetroot up a little. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
2. To make the pickled beetroot, bring all the ingredients except the beetroot to the boil in a saucepan. Using a mandoline or the slicer function on your food processor, finely slice the beetroot into wafer thin rounds. Add the beetroot slices to the boiling pickling liquid, turn the heat down low, cover with a lid and simmer for five minutes stirring a few times. Turn off the heat and let the beetroot cool in the liquid.
3. To prepare the crème fraîche dressing, place the crème fraîche, horseradish cream, chopped chives, chopped tarragon, chopped dill, lemon zest and lemon juice in a mixing bowl. In a mortar and pestle grind up the salt and garlic clove until it starts to forms a rough paste (you can use a chopping board and the back of a spoon if you don’t have a mortar and pestle). Add 1 teaspoon of olive oil and mix until the oil is well incorporated into the garlic. Add about 1 ½ teaspoons of the garlic paste into the dressing and mix well. Taste and adjust the dressing to your liking – you might want to add more garlic, more lemon depending on your individual tastes.
4. In a small mixing bowl gently toss the greens (i.e. baby beetroot leaves, rocket etc.) and sliced kohlrabi with the 2 teaspoons each of olive oil and lemon juice.
5. To serve spread the horseradish dressing out over the base of a large platter. The salad looks the best if the ingredients are not too crowded on the plate so you may wish to serve it on two platters if you don’t have a large one. Scatter the roasted baby beets over the dressing. Gently squeeze out most of the liquid from the picked beetroot (to avoid the pink juice running) and scatter over the plate. Finally top with the dressed greens, kohlrabi and mint leaves. Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and some freshly cracked pepper and you are good to serve! I highly suggest serving it with toasted Turkish bread.
FODMAP friendly adaptation: Replace the garlic in the dressing with 1 teaspoon of garlic oil
Vegan adaptation: Replace the creme fraiche with my cashew and truffle cream.
