It has been a funny old week, I keep getting up and putting shorts on because it looks sunny and warm, then I go outside and it is really cold and I have to search out a jumper. I lost all of my beans to a frost on Sunday night and I can’t plant my courgettes out yet so they are gasping in the greenhouse.
In other news, I’ve had a different career hat on this week and become a greengrocer. With the Farmers Market closed for the time being, I contacted Styan family farm - one of the local suppliers at our lovely farmers market in Stroud and we have set up a village veg box. What has been so lovely is that not only are we supporting a lovely family farm, we are also exchanging recipe ideas and food tips.
Our village veg What’s App group has been buzzing with interesting ways with chard, recipes for colcannon and other things to do with asparagus. I’ve even delivered some of the boxes on my bike!
This week I’m going to share some recipes for beetroot, as I think it is an underused veg and one that sometimes brings back rather yucky memories of the ’70s (certainly for my husband who didn’t like it at all until lockdown started but now he’s a fan.)
As a child of the ’70s, I remember (quite fondly) those salads which constituted a couple of lettuce leaves, (the round limp variety - none of your fancy leaves then), a sliced tomato, a few slices of cucumber, maybe a spring onion or a radish out of the veg patch, a crinkle-cut beetroot in vinegar and a dollop of salad cream. I loved this but sadly my husband did not. Coupled with getting it boiled at school he was destined to be a lifelong sceptic but now he has embraced this lovely pink-hued veg in all its glory.
lovely beetroots in this weeks veg box
beetroot growing in my veg patch
Here are a few of my favourite recipes for doing interesting things with beetroot. Don’t forget to use the leaves, you can cook them like spinach, so don’t fling them in the compost.
As you know I’m not the world’s most accurate cook so some of these are approximate on the measuring front. You may need to adjust depending on how many you are feeding and how spicy or seasoned you like your food.
BEETROOT BHAJIS
Coarsely grate a beetroot and finely slice a red onion.
Mix them in a bowl with:
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon garam masala or curry powder
some chopped coriander
chilli (if you like it)
plenty of salt and pepper.
Add about 3 tablespoons of gram flour (chickpea flour - you can find it in the world food section of the supermarket or from an Indian grocery and a tablespoon of water to bind everything together. If it feels very dry and floury add another tablespoon of water. If it feels too wet add a little more gram flour but you want the veg to shine here not the batter, so you need a bigger ratio of veg to batter.
Leave to rest.
Heat up about 4cm Sunflower oil in a pan. When it’s hot fry dessert spoons of batter till crisp.
Serve with natural yoghurt.
BEETROOT ROSTI
Boil a large potato for 8mins and cool. When it’s cool enough to handle coarsely grate it into a bowl.
Coarsely grate 1 large raw beetroot into the bowl, and season with salt and pepper.
Mix well together and squish into flat patties. (It might turn your hands a bit pink.)
Gently fry the patties in butter and olive oil on both sides.
Serve with smoked salmon or smoked mackerel and a dollop of creme fraiche mixed with horseradish.
BEETROOT HUMMUS - a riff on a Hugh Fearnley recipe
Toast 50g walnuts for about 5mins, and blitz with 25g stale white bread, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 1 tbs tahini, 200g cooked beetroot.
I tend to wrap the beets in foil and roast them till tender then peel them.
Add the juice of half a lemon and a crushed clove of garlic and season with salt and pepper.
Blitz to a puree, adjust the seasoning and lemon juice to your liking.
Serve with warm flatbreads.
SPANOKOPITA - a lovely Greek wild greens and feta pie. Perfect for using up the tops of your beetroot.
Finely chop an onion and fry gently in olive oiling a large sauté pan. Add a crushed clove of garlic and a pinch of salt and pepper.
Shred the washed leaves of a bunch of beetroot and any other greens you have to hand. I've used wild garlic leaves, rocket that’s going over in the greenhouse, spinach, nettles even shredded spring greens. You can use a mixture or just one or two. Wilt the greens and when cooked tip into a bowl.
Add a crumbled up block of feta cheese and a beaten egg, and mix well.
Butter a baking dish or tin and line with a sheet of filo pastry. Brush the pastry with melted butter and top with another sheet of filo. You can add another sheet if you feel it is too thin.
Pile in the filling and fold the pastry over the top to cover. You may need another buttered sheet of filo to top it depending on your dish. You need to cover the filling.
Bake in the oven till golden and crisp and allow to cool a little before serving.
CHOCOLATE BEETROOT CAKE
This is a recipe that I first saw in House & Garden magazine many moons ago. It is deliciously chocolatey and velvety.
250g cooked beetroot, peeled
75g plain chocolate melted
125g softened butter
300g soft, light brown sugar
3 large eggs
225g self-raising flour, sifted with 1/4tsp salt
50g cocoa powder, sifted
For the icing:
150g plain chocolate (70 per cent cocoa solids), broken into small pieces
142ml tub soured cream
5tbsp icing sugar, sifted
3tbsp crème de cassis
For the cake, grate the beetroot quite coarsely and melt the chocolate in a bowl.
Put the butter, sugar and eggs in a mixer and beat until light and pale. Alternatively, you could use an electric whisk to do this.
Add the melted chocolate, then fold in the flour and cocoa powder.
Finally, stir in the beetroot.
Pour the batter into a greased, 20cm cake tin and bake for 45-50 minutes. (I find it makes enough batter to go in two 8” sandwich tins).
The cake is ready when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Turn out the cake on to a wire rack and leave to cool.
For the icing, put the chocolate, soured cream and icing sugar in a bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water. Allow to melt, but don't let the ingredients get too hot. Stir everything together, take off the heat and add the crème de cassis.
Stir vigorously so that you are left with a smooth, glossy mixture. Leave to cool and thicken.
Spread the icing over the cake with a palette knife. Leave the icing to set before serving the cake with crème fraiche. I tend to put jam in the middle and a layer of the frosting then sandwich it together and cover with more frosting.