Beets me!

One of the plusses of being invited to join friends for lunch is the real possibility that you’ll be going someplace you’ve not been before. That, and letting them order (when ordering for the table), is a sure-fire way to gain exposure to new places, possibly new cultures and cuisines, and for sure new dishes.

Not long ago I was asked to meet friends at Forno Rosso, a relatively new “Pizzeria Napoletano” in Chicago’s burgeoning West Loop. While we shared two really great pizzas (Carbonara, anyone? With an egg baked into it, anyone?), we started with a salad of roasted beets, baby spinach, and a pistachio vinaigrette. The salad was a stunner, and something I felt compelled to tackle myself. Dwelling on how that would work, and thinking of roasting beets, I harkened back to a couple other beet-centric dishes, and, well, welcome to the beet show!

If you haven’t noticed, there’s more to beets than those pickled beet slices that have been around for ages, flooding your plate with beet juice, and coloring everything else you’re eating. Don’t get me wrong. Pickled beets are a great addition to almost any salad, and when no fresh beets are at hand will do themselves proud.

Let’s not beat around the bush.

Not too long ago I was in DC doing touristy things, hoping to include in that visit a ‘return to yesteryear’ and have dinner with a friend at “Vidalia”. Alas, “Vidalia” was no longer, but the chef had opened “Honeysuckle” in its place. The menu featured a beet salad that, once replicated, I called “Honeysuckle Salad”, honoring it’s roots. This salad is built on a foundation of sliced, raw beets. Topping the beets is some butter lettuce, a simple dressing of buttermilk and lemon juice, a sprinkling of raisins, and some pistachios. Easy to assemble, and a colorful presentation. The original also had the surprise addition of a chocolate crumble – I would say you could use some crumbled Nabisco Chocolate Wafers, but those have been discontinued. Any rich chocolate cookie would do, and what it adds to the salad is a classic “don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it”.

Small beets make it work best, but because those are hard to find I used pickled baby beets. While you could use them straight out of the jar, I roasted them for about 30 minutes; it seemed to intensify the flavor a bit. The beets are served with a dollop of hot Chinese mustard, the kind that will clear your sinuses (and who knows, maybe give you a use for any packets you might have in a drawer or bowl somewhere). The sweet crunch of the beets with the soft mustard, with it’s intense heat, is an explosively tasty combination. So easy, so different, and sure too please.

Salt and pepper to taste, add some chopped pistachios, and whisk. I plated the beets and drizzled some of the dressing on them. I tossed some spinach with a light sprinkling of the dressing (you don’t want it to wilt the spinach), and topped the beets with it. A final garnish of some chopped pistachios and some Feta (I just like the dryness of Feta), and you’re done. No fresh beets? Sliced pickled beets would work as well.

Hope you’ll try these, and enjoy them as much as I. Let me know. And, if you play around with them and create your own masterpiece, please share it with me.