Salads:
- Grate raw beetroot with apple and dress with lemon juice, orange zest and a touch of olive oil
- Boil or roast beetroot and dress with freshly chopped dill and parsley and orange zest. You can add a bit of olive oil and cider vinegar if you fancy.
- Cut equal quantities of beetroot and carrot into matchstick pieces, dress with lime, olive oil and sesame seeds.
- Add some boiled, diced beetroot to a classic potato salad (it will go a lovely colour).
- Beetroot, roasted or raw, cut into matchstick pieces with fennel and samphire is delicious (great served with pan fried sea-bass or similar).
- Cooked beetroot goes really well with smoked fish, like mackerel. Try adding some watercress and new potatoes and serve with crème fraiche with a bit of grated horseradish.
- Just boil whole, peel whilst still hot and slice. Add slices of onion, some juniper berries, freshly chopped dill and cover with cider vinegar. Leave for at least one day before eating.
Soups:
- Borscht, Felicity Cloake’s recipe is fab
- If you boil some beetroot with beef stock, then blitz it and add finely diced spring onions and creamed horseradish, this is delicious hot or cold.
- Beetroot and orange soup garnished with fennel is good too.
Other suggestions:
- Roast beetroot is great with roasted meats, particulary beef (If the beetroot are large, I parboil them first).
- Daupinoise potatoes made with half the potatoes substituted with beetroot is absolutely delicious.
- When making humus, add some cooked beetroot to the chick peas when pureeing.
- Boiled beetroot is a great vegetable to serve with fish, particularly mackerel, salmon and trout.
- Roasted root vegetables, including beetroot with feta is delicious. Try topped with a savoury walnut crumble.
- Cakes can be made with beetroot. It adds an amazing depth of colour to a chocolate cake. This beetroot, orange and juniper cake is quite delicious.
- With cheese (cottage, sheeps, Wenslydale etc) in a sandwich
Extra beetroot:
- Pickle: I boil, peel when hot and then place in sterilised jars either whole (if tiny) or in slices, covered in malt vinegar. You can add coriander seeds, peppercorns, juniper berries and bay leaves.
- Freeze: Boil (ensure not too soft, better a bit firm), and leave to cool in water. Freeze whole and unpeeled. This can then be used for salads, roasting etc.
Abel and Cole and BBC food have loads of recipes using beetroot.