April 12th, 2009

(a bit special) raw beetroot salad :)

I had this nice RAW beetroots (rarely see them) in the organic shop the other day and today just improvising with them, but the result is surprisingly good that I want to share it. I was just like: right, here is beetroot, what else do I have? :) I had nice pear and green apple and feta and a bunch of wild finocchietto (I don’t know the name in English, but if you can’t find it, just use the herby tops of the fennel) then I opened the cupboard and felt like throwing some sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds and found some unshelled walnuts in the table and asked Marco to crack it when I was busy chopping everything. Mixing and crumbling with hands. Beautiful!

While I was peeling the beetroot, Marco came out with artistic idea about photography concept (if you notice this photo above is a bit ‘quirky’ :) so I washed my hands and took some photos, then he helped me to take this photo when I was chopping :)

Insalata di Barbabietole Crude - Raw Beetroot Salad

For 2

1 medium raw beetroot

1/3 green apple

1/3 pear (I used conference pear)

5 unshelled walnuts

A stalk of wild finocchietto

Feta cheese

1 tbsp pumpkin seeds

1 tbsp sunflower seeds

Dressing:

1 part white wine vinegar

1 part balsamic vinegar

6 part extra virgin olive oil

some pinches of poppy seeds

sea salt and pepper

Mix all the dressing ingredients then adjust the seasoning with sea salt and pepper, set aside. Peel the beetroot, apple and pear then cut into matchstick pieces, then mix together. Crumble some feta cheese, sprinkle the chopped sunflowers and pumpkin seeds. Pick the herby part of finocchietto and sprinkle on top. Drizzle the dressing and mix well.

I ate mine with toasted ciabatta and cold wild asparagus fritatta (recipe soon) and drizzle a bit of 12 years old balsamic vinegar as light lunch :)

Filed under: food