Spicy Beetroot Salad

Beautiful beets are cooked, sliced and marinated in a sweet and spicy dressing; a salad that is always popular.

When selecting beetroots, don’t buy limp leaved beets; choose instead undamaged vegetables that won’t lose moisture and flavour when they are cooked. Furthermore, when cooking the beets, leave the whiskery roots and a little of the leaf stalks intact. From a cooking point of view, it’s good to have beets of an even size.

Ingredients:

1kg fresh, firm beetroots

15ml salt

Dressing:

80ml tarragon vinegar

80ml dark vinegar

375ml water reserved from the cooked beetroots

45ml brown sugar

5ml mustard seeds

6 whole cloves

6 black peppercorns

Stick cinnamon

Bay leaf

1 medium onion, sliced into rings

Method:

Wash beetroot to remove any sand. Place in a large saucepan with salt and enough cold water to cover. Bring to the boil over a medium to high heat, reduce to low heat and simmer, with lid on the saucepan, for 40-60 minutes until cooked.  Avoid piercing while cooking; rather test if they are cooked by wrinkling the skin – when cooked to perfection the skin should easily come away from the beets.

Remove the beets from the cooking water, reserving 375ml for use in the dressing. When cool enough to handle, skin and slice the beetroots, arranging them in a serving dish.

Combine the dressing ingredients in a small saucepan, cover and simmer for 5 minutes; the onions should be crisp and tender. Pour dressing over sliced beets, cool then cover and store in the fridge for at least a day or two before serving to allow the beets to marinate.

This salad keeps well for a couple of weeks stored in a Mason Jar in the fridge.