Roasted Beetroot, Citrus and Olive Salad with Horseradish
In the south of Italy, you frequently find a delicious winter salad with orange, fennel, olives, perhaps a bit of red onion or bitter leaves. This is an adaptation on that. Amazing if you can get a mix of different coloured beets because it makes this dish a total showstopper as they bleed and blend together.
It makes a fabulous accompaniment to a piece of grilled white fish.
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
650g Beetroot, mixed colours if possible
2 Blood oranges, peeled and sliced
1 Lime, peeled and sliced
6 Green olives, pitted and roughly chopped (optional)
A few leaves of bitter radicchio, roughly torn. If you can’t find this, any bitter leaves will do, celery is also nice
¼ Small red onion, finely sliced
A handful of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
1 tbsp Apple cider vinegar
1 tsp Pomegranate molasses
¼ tsp Dried Chili flakes
Extra Virgin Olive Oil – we used Nocellara del Belice from the Librandi family in Calabria as it has great depth, plenty of peppery spice and brilliant balance which brings these quite different ingredients together
10cm fresh horseradish root, finely grated
METHOD
Heat the oven to 180C/375F
Wash the beetroots and trim the top and bottom and then place in a baking dish with some flaked salt and around 60ml or a ¼ cup of water. Cover tightly with tin foil and steam-roast until they are tender when pierced with a knife (around 45 mins). When cool enough to handle, pry away the skins with a small blade knife and then slice into discs or wedges as you prefer.
Then prepare your citrus by peeling and slicing into discs.
In a small bowl, mix the vinegar, molasses, chili flakes, olive oil and combine. Pour this over the beetroot and allow to absorb for a couple of minutes. Then stir through the olives, parsley, radicchio/celery leaves, onion and citrus. Adjust seasoning to taste. Plate up the dish and then add a final generous swirl of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and the finely grated horseradish to serve.