Puréed Roasted Beets with Toasted Hazelnuts and Blue Cheese

I adapted this delicious vegetarian roasted beet recipe from my favorite new cookbook Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, and I promise you the luxurious texture and amazing flavor of this appetizer will woo even the most ardent beet-hater.  

I start by washing and trimming 3 medium sized beets, reserving the tender leaves for salad.  Next I roast the beets, uncovered, in a 400 degree oven for about an hour.  The beets are ready when you can easily insert a knife or fork into the center.  Roasting the beets, as opposed to boiling them, is essential for this recipe because the beets need that rich and gooey texture that roasting imparts. During the last 15 minutes of cooking I put about 10 hazelnuts into the hot oven and toast them off as well.  They will be used later in the garnish.

When the beets are cool enough to handle, I remove the outer skin and cut each into 6 or 8 smaller pieces.  In addition, I peel and crush 2 cloves of garlic and measure out 1/2 cup of really good plain Greek yogurt.
 

I put the roasted beets, crushed garlic, and just a pinch of Kosher salt into a blender or food processor and blend to break up the beets.  Then I add in the yogurt and continue blending until the consistency is smooth and velvety.

Then I transfer the beet purée to a bowl and drizzle in 1 tablespoon of good olive oil, some fresh ground black pepper, and a bit more salt if needed.

Just before serving I prepare the garnish of toasted hazelnuts coarsely crushed, 1 scallion sliced very, very thin at an angle, and a rounded tablespoon of crumbled blue cheese (you can substitute feta cheese if you like).

I carefully transfer the beet purée to a flat serving dish, and with a small spoon or the tip of a knife I weave in just a tiny bit of plain yogurt, which adds a nice color contrast.  I drizzle the top with another tablespoon of olive oil and a bit more fresh ground black pepper, and I scatter the garnish across the top.

It's delicious served on top of warm thin sourdough bread slices.  Even the kids loved it!

Organic Baby Lettuce Salad with Blue, Beets, and Carmelized Pecans

My artistic sister Cheryl and I share a love of vegetables, especially salads, and particularly colorful salads featuring contrasting flavors and textures.  This year Cheryl made this beautiful salad that combines sweet and savory for our Thanksgiving feast, and it was so good that I made it again for a Christmas potluck, and then second time just because....  My sister's version includes bacon, which is of course very delicious, but as you will see the bacon is conspicuously absent from the vegetarian version depicted below.  The following recipe serves about 6 decent-sized portions.  I doubled it for the potluck, as did my sister for Thanksgiving.

Start with about 8 cups of mixed organic baby lettuce.  Use whatever blend of lettuce varieties you enjoy, but be sure to include radicchio, notable for its eye-catching red color and lovely bitter accent.  Chop the lettuce coarsely and place in a large serving bowl.

Roast or boil 2-3 yellow beets, and when cool, peel the beets, slice them into thin wedges, and give them a quick pickle by allowing them to rest in a bowl with a splash of vinegar and some salt and pepper for 15 minutes or so.

In the meantime, peel and mince 2 medium shallots, and dice up 1 yellow tomato and 1/2 an English cucumber.  Also, chop up a handful of fresh herbs, such as dill, parsley, and/or mint for an extra flavor punch! Sprinkle the ingredients over the lettuce and add the pickled beets.

Next, measure out 1/4 cup of crumbled blue cheese and 1/3 cup of candied pecans.  (You can candy the pecans yourself, but Trader Joe's sells candied pecans that are out of this world.)  Coarsely chop the pecans.

Finally, whisk together a simple Dijon vinaigrette by measuring out 1/4 cup of very good extra virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard, and a bit of Kosher salt.  Pour the dressing over the salad just before serving, scatter the blue cheese and pecans on top, and add a few grinds of fresh cracked black pepper.

Now if you are craving the full on carnivore version of this salad, this is the point at which you would also add plenty of salty crumbled bacon.  And if, like me, you follow a strictly vegan diet (at least during the day), adapt the recipe by swapping cubes of creamy avocado for the blue cheese. 

No matter your dietary predilection, there is a version of this salad for you to enjoy!

Eating VB6-Style in San Anselmo

Since embarking on the VB6 plan more than three months ago, I've been steadfast about adhering to it.  And when you have friends like Lisa and Jack hosting you for a weekend getaway, it's especially easy!  A few weeks ago my sister Cheryl and I, along with my nephew Lorenzo and our friend Baris, took a drive up the state to visit our friends Jack and Lisa in beautiful San Anselmo, located in Marin County, just north of San Francisco.  Lisa and Jack have a gorgeous home surrounded by an amazing garden that was absolutely bursting with dazzling flowers as well as a wide variety of succulent fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

When we arrived in the late afternoon, after a long drive up the oh-so-boring Interstate 5, we were greeted by our welcoming friends and an amazing (mostly) vegan spread of crudities and hummus, black and green olives, cold fresh cherries, bread, crackers and cheese, and Marcona almonds with rosemary, along with a lovely chilled Rose.  We eagerly devoured the delicious and healthy snacks, and then I started inspecting their garden looking for things to harvest.  Lisa and Jack know I'm a vegetable freak, and particularly a cucumber freak, so they intentionally left some lemon cucumbers clinging to the vine just so that I could pluck them off.  I also discovered fresh onions, beautiful squash varieties, enormous cantaloupes, gorgeous peppers, delicate tomatillos, golden sunburst tomatoes, lemons galore, and petite strawberries.

 

And as beautiful as the fresh fruit and vegetable offerings were in the garden, the herbs were just to die for, and included basil, mint, rosemary, cilantro, and red and green shiso.

 

One thing that all of us appreciate and enjoy so much is preparing delicious meals altogether, and with a garden setting like Lisa and Jack's, who wants to go out?

Some of our collective creations over the weekend included these beautiful heirloom beets with homemade vinaigrette and topped with garden fresh herbs; quinoa seasoned with red pepper and lots of fresh Italian flat leaf parsley; mixed green salad loaded with fresh shiso, basil, cucumbers, peppers, and almonds, and more homemade vinaigrette; cold yogurt "soup" (or cacik in Turkish) made with chilled plain yogurt, diced cucumber, fresh garlic, good olive oil, and a lot of fresh mint; corkscrew pasta with Lisa's delicious homemade pesto sauce; chicken kebabs marinated in garlic infused yogurt; and of course, Lorenzo's favorite potato salad with fresh peppers, onions and herbs (recipe to come soon!).

And of course, the perfect end to a perfect meal is most definitely Lisa's fresh, delicious, and intoxicating homemade limoncello!   Deliziosa!  Cin cin!

Photo by Lisa Gunheim Adams
(Hopefully soon-to-be guest Blogger demonstrating the art of making limoncello.)

Dirty Beets!

My sister Wendy does not like beets at all.  She says they taste like "dirt."  I can't say that she's wrong, but there's just something about vegetables that taste like the ground they were grown in that really appeals to me.  I love beets, plus they are packed with nutrients, vitamins, and minerals, making them an excellent VB6 option.  (Please see the May Introduction post for background on VB6.)  I love the variety of colors beets come in, I love their texture, I love peeling and cutting them, and most of all, I love their earthy flavor.  This week, I made yellow beets -- bright orange on the outside, deep yellow on the inside, and full of flavor.

Beets are super easy to prepare. I just lop off the stems, scrub the dirt off in cold water, and put them in a pot of salted cold water, which I bring to a boil.  I cook them until they are just fork-tender.  Next, I immerse them in cold water to halt the cooking, and when they are cool enough to handle, I just peel the skin off with my hands.  With just a little bit of coaxing, the skin literally falls right off.

           

Next I slice them up -- always, always in wedges!  I don't know why, but I think that wedges are the perfect shape for beets.  To finish the beets, I generally add an oil (usually olive oil), an acid (lemon or any type of vinegar), an herb (dill, parsley, mint, or cilantro), a spice (cumin is my favorite on beets), salt and pepper, and some type of onion (red or white onions, or scallions, or even shallots).  Really, the options are endless.  

I start by salting the beets and coating them with just a little bit of good olive oil.  Then I add a generous amount of acid (today it was fresh lemon juice), followed by some thinly sliced onion (scallions in this version), and a good handful of chopped herbs (I used Italian flat leaf parsley).  Next, I combine everything so that it's pleasing to the eye, reserving a pinch of the parsley for the top.  Finally, I sprinkle on a tiny bit of cumin, which is a great compliment to the "dirt" flavor of the beets, and some black pepper.  Served room temperature or cold, the beets make for a delicious salad, side dish, or green salad addition.                         

Last week I made red beets.  They were equally delicious and featured thinly sliced red onion and radishes, fresh dill, and red wine vinegar.