Earthy, sweet, sour, rich, nutty and herbaceous, this is my take on a summer beet salad. I used four types of beets, red, white, golden and candy striped to make this dish. I also used two cooking methods, salt roasted and steamed along with serving some of the beets raw. I like to use opposite textures and temperatures and flavors to make a dish interesting to experience. The dish has two sauces that work well together. One is a chilled yogurt that has roasted garlic and lemon juice added to it. The other sauce is served warm and is browned butter with fish sauce added to it. I added toasted pine nuts for flavor and texture and also several types of flowers and herbs from my garden.
Ingredients
- Beets (Golden, White, Candy Striped and Red)
- Yogurt
- Lemons
- Garlic
- Butter
- Fish Sauce
- Pine Nuts
- Chamomile Flowers
- Dill Flowers
- Thai Basil Flowers
- Lemon Verbena
- Thyme
There are a lot of leftovers when making a dish like this. But all the scraps get put into everyday salads and smoothies. Nothing is wasted.
Method
- Pick the flowers and herbs.
- Toast the pine nuts.
- Brown some butter and then pour into a cool bowl to stop the cooking. Stir in fish sauce to taste.
- Mash up the roasted garlic with the yogurt and thin with the roasted lemon juice (The garlic and lemons are roasted with the beets. See below).
- Peel and slice the raw candy striped beets on a mandoline.
- Steam, peel and slice the golden and white beets.
- Salt roast the red beets with the garlic and lemon. Then peel and slice the beets.
- Plate the dish as you like.
To salt roast any food mix coarse salt with egg whites until it has the texture of wet sand. Put down a base layer of salt and then put your foods on top. Cover with a 1/4 inch layer of salt. The beets roast for 90 minutes at 350F.
This method of cooking really focuses the flavor of the ingredient. The beets came out deeply roasted with a light seasoning of salt. Since the beets are covered with skin only a small amount of salt gets through. I use the same method for whole roasted fish and the skin acts as a barrier to the salt and the meat comes out moist and perfectly seasoned. When the salt and egg white mixture heat up they actually form a solid mass like cement. This lets the food cook in its own juices which intensifies the flavor.
Here is what it looks like when you remove the salt crust after cooking.
Thanks for stopping by today. If you have any questions about this dish please ask me in the comments section below.
Also, If you like to cook then I invite you to check out the contest I run with @offoodandart and @pandamama called Cook with Us. We are starting up season 2 tomorrow so please drop by @cookwithus to join the fun.
