Golden Beet Salad

As the leaves in our neighborhood begin their autumn show of yellows, oranges, and reds, I find myself drawn to foods that match their hues.  Pumpkins and other squashes will fill that category, of course, but so do beets.  Our farmer’s market and the grocery store have been offering golden beets, and I love their beautiful color and mellow flavor. This golden beet salad is a great mix of savory—from the herbs and cumin-scented yogurt sauce—and sweet—from the beets themselves.  

I discovered this salad among the pages of Deborah Madison’s recent cookbook In My Kitchen.  Madison was in Denver for the Slow Food USA conference back in July to talk about food trends in our country. During her career, she has continually celebrated using local, seasonal produce in creative and tasty ways. I’ve enjoyed cooking from another of Madison’s cookbooks, the best-selling Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, for many years, so it was a treat to meet her in person and talk briefly.  This recipe was the first I tried from her latest book, and we deemed it a keeper.

The components of the salad are simple: cooked beets, quick pickled shallots, and a mix of lettuces. While you could certainly use precooked beets from the produce section of the store, it’s really pretty simple (and rewarding in taste) to roast them yourself. Madison suggests steaming the beets stovetop, but I prefer oven roasting. After rinsing the beets, I cut all but about one inch of the greens off (keeping them for another use later) and leave the root ends on.  Then I nestle the beets in a baking pan with about 1/2 inch of water in the bottom, cover with foil, and bake for an hour.  Once the beets have cooled, their skins slip off easily, and they are ready for duty.

I made simple adaptations to Madison’s techniques:  I allowed the shallots to soak in their bath of apple cider vinegar and salt for longer than 5 minutes.

And I used a salad mix of various leaves instead of the mâche and purple orach leaves that Madison suggests. By itself, this version of the salad glows with the golden beets, has a bit of sweet crunch from the shallots, and makes a lovely dish.

But Madison couples this recipe alongside a creamy herb-rich sauce with a yogurt base. The optional yogurt sauce, seasoned with cumin and garlic and flecked with fresh dill, parsley, and cilantro, gives the salad a Middle Eastern flair. It can be used as a condiment for many other dishes. Madison lists cooked lentils, zucchini pancakes, and raw vegetables as possibilities. 

Curious about the impact the yogurt sauce would have on the flavor of the salad, I put it together and placed dabs of it near the beets. Before serving, I drizzled a bit of olive oil and then ground sumac atop the yogurt sauce. The oil enriched the sauce while the sumac added color and a lemony note. The salad is beautiful once it’s composed and has flavors that harmonize with each other.

Fall harmony.  Colorful leaves and plates. What a memorable way to connect the season with food.

Golden Beet Salad

Dawn Dobie

Mellow roasted beets combine with greens and a shallot vinaigrette alongside a flavorful yogurt sauce.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 20 minutes mins

Servings 6

Ingredients

  

For beet salad

• 3 large golden beets greens cut off to leave 1-inch stems
• 3 medium or 2 large shallots peeled and sliced crosswise into 1/8-inch thick rings
• 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons good olive oil
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 4 cups of mixed salad leaves

For yogurt sauce

• 3/4 cup Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/2 clove garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• about 1 cup of finely chopped fresh herb leaves using equal parts parsley, cilantro, and dill
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• good olive oil
• ground sumac optional

Instructions

 

For beet salad

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Place trimmed beets in roasting pan and pour water in to reach 1/2 inch depth. Cover the pan tightly with foil and bake for 1 hour. Remove from oven, carefully remove foil, and allow beets to cool.
• While the beets are roasting, combine the cider vinegar and salt in a shallow bowl and stir until salt dissolves. Add sliced shallots, allowing the rings to separate, and pickle at room temperature for about 30-45 minutes.
• Peel the cooled beets (I use gloves to keep from staining my hands). Cut each beet into 8-12 wedges.
• Mix the olive oil with the marinating shallots to create a vinaigrette. Drizzle about 2 tablespoons of the oil and cider vinegar mix over the beets and toss to combine. Taste and season with salt and pepper (and maybe more vinegar, depending on your taste).
• Toss the salad greens with some of the vinaigrette and place on one large plate or divide among individual salad plates. Tuck beet wedges among the salad leaves and garnish with shallots.
• If desired, spoon small mounds of yogurt sauce around the salad or pass around so each person can choose the amount to use.

For yogurt sauce

• Mash the garlic with the salt, creating a paste.
• Combine the yogurt, sour cream, cumin, and garlic paste in a medium bowl.
• Stir in the chopped herbs. Taste and add more salt if desired. Season with pepper.
• Drizzle a bit of extra olive oil over the yogurt sauce. Sprinkle with powdered sumac, if desired.

Notes

To do ahead, roast the beets, peel and cut into wedges. Cover and refrigerate for up to 5 days. Proceed with quick pickled shallots and salad composing before serving.
You can roast extra beets at the outset, and after making the salad, store them in the leftover vinaigrette. They will keep for about 5 days and will be tasty just on their own.
Madison encourages cooks to experiment with adding other salad components, such as thinly sliced fennel, avocados, feta cheese, walnuts, horseradish, or grated carrots.

Adapted from In My Kitchen by Deborah Madison