Beetroot and Rhubarb Salad

by Yotam Ottolenghi, featured in Plenty More

Published by Ebury Press

Introduction

For someone who didn't grow up with rhubarb, this vegetable (or stalk?) is a bit of an oddity. I guess the same could be said of artichoke, a thistle, but for me, eating a thick, greenish, reddish branch will always seem much weirder than scoffing a thorny flower. Each to their own, I say. One of my sweetest rhubarb memories dates from the early years of Ottolenghi, when one of our sales assistants, the lovely Alexandra from Mexico, used to come down to the kitchen on her breaks with a cappuccino cup full of caster sugar and a raw rhubarb stalk to dip in the sugar as dessert. Slightly unusual but, as I said, each to their own. During the beet season the different varieties around offer a great opportunity to play with colours and subtlety of flavour. If you can get some golden, red, white and some candy beets, you can mix them up; otherwise, one variety is absolutely fine.

As featured in

Plenty More

Image of Yotam Ottolenghi's Beetroot and Rhubarb Salad

Ingredients

Serves: 4

beetroots of various kinds (or, if you can't get them, one type is fine)
300 grams trimmed rhubarb (cut at an angle into 2.5cm pieces)
30 grams caster sugar
2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
¾ tablespoon pomegranate molasses
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon ground allspice
1 small red onion (thinly sliced) - 75g
20 grams fresh parsley leaves
100 grams creamy gorgonzola cheese (or similar blue cheese, torn into small chunks)
salt
black pepper

Method

Beetroot and Rhubarb Salad is a guest recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi so we are not able to answer questions regarding this recipe

Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C Fan/Gas Mark 7.
Wrap the beetroots individually in foil, place on a baking tray and roast in the oven for anywhere between 40 and 70 minutes, depending on their size, until cooked through. Set aside to cool before peeling and cutting roughly into 2cm dice.
Toss the rhubarb with the sugar, spread out on a small roasting tray lined with foil and bake for about 12 minutes, until the pieces have softened without becoming mushy. Set aside to cool.
Place the vinegar, molasses, maple syrup, oil and allspice in a bowl with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a good grind of black pepper. Add the onion and set aside for a few minutes to soften. Add the parsley and beetroot and stir well. Just before serving, add the Gorgonzola and the rhubarb, along with its juices. Give everything a very gentle mix and serve at once.