Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Nigella Lawson's raw beetroot salad with dill and mustard seeds

UPDATE 18.8.2007
This post was mentioned on the Swedish-language site Matfeber, together with my photo!

In my previous beetroot post one of the readers, Lydia, enquired about the use of raw beetroot. All my beetroot recipes so far on this blog have been using either boiled or roasted beetroot (the two are interchangeable in most recipes). Lydia's comment, however, reminded me of a Nigella Lawson recipe I had tried - and enjoyed - few years ago, so I looked it up again. The recipe is from her book Forever Summer, and makes a delightful summery salad. Feel free to use more mustard seeds and a lot more fresh herbs, as these only enhance the flavour of the salad.

The salad was still very enjoyable - and thank you, Lydia, for making be look up this recipe again!!

Raw Beetroot Salad with Dill and Mustardseeds
(Peedisalat sinepiseemnete ja tilliga)
Source: Forever Summerby Nigella Lawson



500 grams raw beetroot
1 lemon
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
6 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped
2 Tbsp mustard seeds, toasted
fresh parsley, chopped
Maldon sea salt

Peel the beets and grate finely either by hand or in a food processor. Add chopped dill, lemon juice and olive oil.
Toast mustard seeds on a small dry frying pan, until they start 'popping' - it'll take only few seconds, so don't go anywhere! Add mustard seeds to the salad, season with salt and garnish with plenty of parsley.

BLAST FROM THE PAST
A year ago I wrote about raspberry focaccia, that we enjoyed with some Cornish Brie cheese.

12 comments:

Meeta K. Wolff said...

I love beetroot.and at the moment I'm pretty excited as my son is developing a taste for it too. YAAY! That makes two of us and now I have a great excuse to serve these kind of salads during meals. Tom is not a huge beetroot fan but 2 against 3 wins!!

Thanks for the recipe!

Anh said...

Yum yum! I love this salad. I think it's good for even winter, really :)

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

Pille, thank you so much for this recipe. For the first time this year I have a good crop of dill weed in my herb garden, and it seems a perfect pairing with beets. And I have loads of parsley that is remarkably flavorful this year. I'm off to the farmers' market for some beets!

K and S said...

ooh, yummy! and perfect for summer.

Katie Zeller said...

That looks sooo good...and pretty!
In another life I used to make beetroot pickles - this reminds me a bit of that!

Violet said...

Looks great. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I've never had raw beets. I'll have to try it.

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

A most perfect summer salad that will be on my table in some form soon! Thanks for this one.

Jeanne said...

Another beetroot recipe?! Girl, you got bitten by the beetroot bug! I must say despite not being a fan of beetroot, I have on occasion had it grated over a salad and found the texture far more acceptable, so maybe I should give this a try. Thanks!

Susan from Food Blogga said...

Oh, mustard seed is a great idea. I'll be trying that one!

Clivia said...

Mmmm, I tried this some months ago and really liked it, despite the fact that my beets were a bit old! I served it with the salmon she recommends - pan-fried at the last minute with a crust of mustard powder and brown sugar - and it was so, so good.

Pille said...

Meeta - I love your kitchen democracy:)

Anh - all-rounder, for sure!

Lydia - dill is a good pairing to many things (or anything in Estonia, really). Beetroot, cucumber, tomatoes - you name it!

K&S - thank you!

Katie - I haven't made beetroot pickles in my life! Have you got a good recipe?

Stephen - I rarely have it raw, too, but it's lovely. Still, my favourite is roasted beetroot.

Tanna - you're welcome!

Jeanne - ok, start either by grated raw salad or roasted beetroot. I really hope you'll develop a thing for beetroot!

Susan - go ahead!

Clivia - I don't have that Nigella's book myself, so I didn't even remember she suggested this as a side-dish to pan-fried salmon. Thanks for the tip!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the inspirations. I just make a it with a little twist of my own. I added Cilantro and use apple cider vinegar instead of lemon juice. I did not expect that I would finish the whole bowl, but I did.