Posts tagged beets
We dressed up the beets – Beets stuffed with goat cheese, walnuts and garlic on a bed of kale vinaigrette
Dec 15th
On a habillé les betteraves – Betteraves farcies au chèvre, ail et noix sur lit de chou vert vinaigrette
I am not used to eating beets in hot preparations, and I wanted to explore this further. Sometimes, you are so used to eating things in a certain way, that the thought of changing ways makes you uncomfortable. It’s funny how we, humans are creatures of habits. In France, beets are eaten either raw or cooked but in salads, but rarely hot. At least, I never did. I have roasted them a few times in the oven, and I liked them, but that’s it. Ca s’arrête là. It stops there. Beets being roots, I figured that like potatoes, turnips or any other root vegetable, you can accommodate them in many different ways, one of which being stuffed.
I tried those with Roquefort cheese instead of goat cheese and it was delicious. You can play around a bit with the recipe and I prefer Roquefort than goat cheese, but goat cheese and beets are a perfect combination. You can use smaller beets and serve two instead of one. It really depends on how many number of courses you have. Also, you can serve it on a bed of arugula salad, endives, etc…any kind of greens you like. As you can see this dish is quite versatile, and playful.
As for the color of beets, there is not much difference between red beets and golden beets, other than the golden ones tends to be a tiny sweeter and have a more fragrant flavor, but the difference is really not that big.
Ingredients for 4
For the beets
- 4 medium sized beets
- 4 tbs soft goat cheese (or more to be adjusted according to beet size)
- 4 tsp, chopped walnuts
- 1 large garlic clove, crushed
- 1 bunch kale
- salt and pepper
For the vinaigrette
- 3 tbs olive oil
- 1 tbs sherry vinegar
- 1.5 tsp pomegranate molasses
- 1 tbs chives, finely chopped
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Cook beets in water until tender. Drain, let it cool and peel. Cut a bit of the bottom to make it flat so the beet can stand sill, then cut the top and scoop the inside of the beet to make room for the cheese. Scoop about one third, not the whole beet.
In a small bowl, using a fork mix cheese, garlic and walnuts previously toasted. Stuff beets with the cheese mixture.
Blanch kale and when cooked, squeeze excess water.
Place stuffed beets in a tray and broil until the top turns golden brown.
Pour 2/3 of the vinaigrette on top of kale and toss well. Divide kale in plates, add one beet on top and pour the rest of the vinaigrette on top of beets. Serve warm.
Spring, here we are – Grilled beets, sweet potato and haloumi kebabs with arugula-lime dipping sauce
Mar 30th
Printemps, nous voilà – Brochettes grillées de betteraves, patates douces et haloumi, sauce de roquette et citron vert
Who said kekabs have to be with meat? you can do anything you usually do with meat using vegetables, some vegetables are more adapted to certain cooking methods, but are incredibly versatile.
I haven’t used haloumi in a long time, and really felt like grilling cheese, and especially haloumi with its delicate texture and pungent flavor. You can find some other haloumi recipe here and here. I bought some pomegranate molasses at my favorite Greek grocery store (called the Fruit Barn), and had to find a way to use it. Sometimes I can get a little obsessive, when I buy a new ingredient, I won’t stop thinking until I find a recipe to use it.
Pomegranate molasses is widely used in Lebanese and Iranian cuisine not really in French or Italian cuisines, but is definitely a Mediterranean ingredient. I loved the pomegranate juices you get in Israel, in those fruit juice joints in any street, they’re so refreshing and healthy. So pomegranate molasses is produced by reducing pomegranate juice, you get some syrupy texture, half sweet, half acidic.
Basically the natural sweetness of those kebabs produced by beets and sweet potatoes is a very pleasant sensation for your palate. It’s enhanced by the bitterness of arugula and acidity of pomegranate molasses, so you’ll see how delightful these kebabs are. The stars of this dish are definitely the haloumi and the pomegranate molasses.
Ingredients for 6 kebabs
For the kebabs
- 3 medium size beets, peeled and cut in 1 1/2 inch cubes
- 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut in 1 1/2 cubes
- 1 piece haloumi, cut in cubes (similar sizes than beets and potatoes)
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
- salt and pepper
For the arugula-lime sauce
- 1.5 cups arugula
- 1 tbs pomegranade molasses
- juice of 1 lime
- 2 tbs raw cashews
- 1 garlic clove
- 3 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Start preparing the arugula dipping sauce. Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend, until obtained a paste, but not too thin.
Start first by roasting beets. Place cut beets in a sheet, coat them with oil and vinegar, salt and pepper and broil in a 375F oven for about 20 minutes or until just tender. Remove from heat and keep warm.
Proceed using the same method with potatoes. Keep warm.
Using a wooden skewer, add one beet cube, then one potato cube, haloumi, another beet, and potato.
Heat a skillet or a grill pan, and grill each skewer, until the haloumi is grilled on all sides. Add some dipping sauce, and serve hot. You can serve the sauce on the side.
Tel Aviv lentil salad – Lentil and beet salad with arugula, feta and mint
Feb 3rd
La bonne salade aux lentilles de Tel Aviv – Salade de lentilles, roquette, betteraves à la feta et menthe
On my stay in Tel Aviv, I walked almost all over the city for five days…the weather was beautiful, it felt so much like summer to me so while France was snowed in, I enjoyed my five days as if it was the last time I would be in short sleeves and eat croissants on a terrace.
As much as Jerusalem had a magic light, Tel Aviv had amazing restaurants, I loved all of them, everything was fresh and exquisite and I got to explore the city and its great neighborhoods and specialties with my map (and my high heels, shameless to say). As bad as I get in orienting myself, sometimes I think I have a disease. I can drive or walk every day by the same place, without ever remembering it. Maybe the “tête en l’air” virus.
I did remember Ben Yehuda street and the green restaurant that had been intriguing me for days with its flashy green color. It was a colorful looking place that seemed to serve organic food and decided to give it a try. It was a mixture of a traditional Californian vegetarian cafe type of decor combined with a Mediterranean menu which intrigued me. Every item on the menu had a calorie count and was under 300 calories per dish. I was not aware that Israelis were that health conscious. I finally ordered the lentil salad not knowing what to expect and thinking how exciting a bowl of lentils could be? Well, it could certainly be very exciting! that was seriously the most, delicious, flavorful, healthy lentil dish salad I had in quite a long time.
I loved it so much, that I wanted to try to reproduce it from what I remembered and it turned out quite well. Who can say no to a one meal bowl full of nutrients with so little calories? Certainly not me.
Ingredients for 2
- about 5.30 oz (or 150 g) green lentils
- 3 medium size beets (golden or red), cooked and diced
- 1 cup arugula
- 2 tbs feta, crumbled
- 2 tbs mint, chopped
- 2 scallions, chopped
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 1/3 tsp cumin powder
- juice of 1 lemon
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Cook lentils in salted water until cooked but not mushy. Drain and set aside.
Cook beets in water until tender, about 45 min. Let cool, then peel them. Cut in about 1 inches pieces and add to the lentils, then add arugula. Add mint and scallion and mix well.
In a bowl, mix cumin, olive oil and lemon juice, salt and pepper. Mix well.
Pour dressing on top of the salad and toss. Add feta and mix carefully.
Not that "bête" – Verrines of golden beets with herbed ricotta
Nov 23rd
Pas si bêtes que ca – Verrines de betteraves, ricotta aux herbes
I went for a little walk downtown today since my car did not run, the internet and the phone were completely dead, so I decided to take a day off rooming around the city. It had been a while I did not get the chance to do so and that was the perfect excuse for it. When technology decides to let you down, just go back to the basics.
You can feel the holiday spirit all over the city, all the Christmas colors are out, what an exciting feeling! Let’s not jump right onto Christmas since Thanksgiving is not here yet, it’s right across the corner and I haven’t yet decided what to serve for dinner. All the beautiful stemware and dinnerware in display makes me want to buy it all. I love a beautiful table for special occasions and was trying to find some special theme for Thursday night dinner.
In France, we serve turkey for Christmas, La dinde de Noël traditionally served with chestnuts. So that’s the way I will prepare my turkey, with chestnuts and with lots of vegetable side orders. I will call it “Thanksmas”.
We also serve many trendy appetizers like this one called verrines. They’re usually served in small glasses and in small quantities. Un Verre = A Glass. Verrines can be exotic, classics, sophisticated, it all depend on the ingredients. I bought beautiful golden beets and wanted to use the ricotta with them. Beet’s sweetness goes wonderfully well with soft cheeses such as goat cheese, ricotta, etc… You can add some sundried tomatoes on top of the ricotta or a crispy pancetta slice. It’s also delicious served with toasted country bread on the side, so you can spread some of the beet/ricotta mixture on top.
Ingredients for 4 verrines
For the beets
- 4 medium size golden beets, thinly diced
- 2 tbs sunflower seeds
- 1 tbs red onion, thinly chopped
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 tsp raspberry vinegar
- salt and pepper
For the ricotta
- 8 tbs ricotta
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tsp chives, chopped
- 1 tsp parsley, chopped
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Wash beets and cook them in water or steam them for about 30 minutes or until they’re cooked all the way through. When cooked let them cool and peel them. Cut them is small cubes (1/3 of an inch). In a container, add beats and all other ingredients. Set aside
In a bowl, mix ricotta with all the ingredients.
Using a small glass container, add 2-3 tbs beets (depending on the size of your glass). Place 2-3 tbs ricotta on top. sprinkle with fresh pepper and a little olive oil. Decorate with chives and a cherry tomato cut in half.
Eat with toasted country bread.
Pink and pinkier – Pink beet tagliatelle with leek and Taleggio sauce
Aug 16th
Rosa e ancora più rosa – Tagliatelle rosa alle rape rosse con salsa ai porri, taleggio e pinoli
I have many friends who don’t like beets, they have an earthy taste that can be unappealing for some. I have been thinking for a long time to play with pasta dough, and make some colorful pasta, but I wanted something colorful and pretty, in the pinkish tint, and to get a pink color, beets are perfect, their deep red juice can color anything. My pasta machine being somewhere I cannot find, I used my mattarello (or matterello it depends on the region) (rolling pin) and went back to the basics.
I prefer pasta rolled with a rolling pin, you get a grainy texture that you don’t get with a pasta machine, therefore the sauce gets absorbed much better and pasta is really deliciously perfect. Now rolling the pasta with a mattarello (rolling pin) can get tricky if you have never done it, so if you don’t have the right rolling pin and never done it before, I recommend using the pasta machine.
Taleggio is a cheese from Northern Italy (it belongs to the stracchino category of cheeses), it has a distinct and nutty flavor, quite aromatic that I also like to eat with bread. It’s an ancient cheese and its origins can be traced up to year 900. If you cannot find Taleggio, you can use gorgonzola, its flavor is stronger but mixes well with beets.
You can use pre-cooked beets, I always find them at Trader Joe’s if I don’t have time to cook them. You can also buy the uncooked one if you have plenty of time and cook them in water for about 40 minutes.
If you don’t want to use all the pasta, you can put the extra on the refrigerator for up to two days.
Ingredients for 4
For the pasta
- 15. 87 oz (or 450 g) flour
- 7 oz (or 200 g) cooked beets, pureed
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbs olive oil
- one pinch of salt
For the sauce
- 3 large leeks, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 4 tbs Taleggio (or gorgonzola), cubed
- 5 tbs parmigiano reggiano, grated
- 2 tbs heavy cream
- 2 tbs pine nuts (optional)
- 2 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Puree the beets in food processor. Set aside. Place flour in a mixing bowl, make a hole in the middle, add beets, and gradually add eggs, a pinch of salt and olive oil. Start kneading the dough, adjusting the flour if necessary, dough needs to be hard enough and not sticky. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Form a round ball and place in a plastic wrap for about 30 minutes and let rest.
Cut the dough in about 4-5 pieces, add flour if it is a little sticky, flatten it and start rolling the pasta with the pasta machine. I will post a detailed instructions soon on how to make pasta. La pasta fatta in casa, as they would say in Italy. When the pasta has been cut, it needs to dry a little bit, I would let it dry for about 30 minutes. Most of the time, I don’t let it dry, but for this particular types of pasta with beets, the dough tends to be softer than regular plain pasta, so you might need to let it dry longer.
Heat olive oil in a pan, add one garlic clove, add leeks, salt and pepper. Cover and cook leeks at medium heat. When cooked, remove from pan. Add taleggio, and let it melt slowly, add cream.
Start bringing a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta, when the pasta comes to the surface, after 2-3 minutes, drain and add to the pan with cheese. Add leeks, parmesan and pine nuts. Mix carefully and serve hot
