raw beetroot and carrot salad with herbs

My body has been plagued with a ghastly respiratory flu virus over the last two weeks so I have been craving nutrition dense food to bring it back to health. Raw beetroot is delicious, but I feel it needs the carrot, other fresh herbs, seeds and nuts to make it interesting. You could add cheese, but I’m trying to observe my calorie intake, so left the crumbly feta out. I made a dressing with orange and lemon juice to give it zest. The salad literally sucks it all up. An extra fennel and yoghurt dressing adds a cool and tart dimension to top it off.

This salad could be served with any grilled meats, lamb or fish. I ate it on its own and loved the textural contrast of the cold and creamy with the crunchy.

This is one of those salads you can adapt to your own taste. I hate to waste the top green stems of a fennel bulb, so I finely chopped about 1/2 a cup of that in too. I also added a good 2 tablespoons of fennel leaves along with the bunch of fresh parsley. I probably would have added fennel bulb, but I’d shaved it all onto my fennel and radish salad. After mixing the salad in a bowl and allowing the dressing to soak in, I served it on a bed of wild rocket leaves which adds to the flavour.

*cooks notes ~ try and cut the carrots and beetroot as finely aspossible. If you have a mandolin or food processor to do this it will help. Check the seasong and adjust as you go along. You could add more chilli if you prefer a little kick.

Recipe – make one large salad inspired by Ottolenghi’s raw beetroot and herb leaf salad.

Ingredients

3 cups of beetroot finely cut into julienne
3 cups carrots finely cut into julienne
½ cup finely chopped fennel stalks
2 T chopped fennel leaves
½ cup toasted almond flakes
½ cup toasted sunflower seeds
¼ cup toasted sesame seeds
bunch of parsley about 20g – stalks and leaves, roughly chopped
salad dressing
zest and juice of one orange
3 T lemon juice3T red wine vinegar
3 T olive oil
salt and pepper
pinch of dried chilli flakes
yoghurt dressing
¾ cup Greek yoghurt
¼ cup crème fraiche
2 t lemon juice
2 T chopped fennel leaves

Instructions

Toss the beetroot, carrot and chopped fennel in the salad dressing and leave to soak for 10 minutes. This can be made in advance and left in the fridge.
Toast all the nuts and seeds by dry frying them (separately) in a non stick frying pan or roasting them in the oven. Set aside.
Chop the parsley.
Mix up the yoghurt dressing ingredients and decant into a bowl to serve on the side with the salad.
When you are ready to serve the salad, lay a handful of rocket leaves on the bottom of a serving platter or bowl. Toss ¾ of all the seeds / nuts, plus the parsley through the salad and tip into the bowl.
Garnish with the remaining seeds and nuts and serve.

I look forward to connecting with you again in the future.

Visit my Drizzle and Dip Facebook page or Google+ to get updates of all my posts or subscribe up in the top right.

I can also be found enthusiastically pinning beautiful food images on Pinterest, and snapping pics of my life in Cape Town and what I eat on Instagram

6 Comments