Tag Archives: beet

Midweek Salad

 Hey guys! What do you cook during the week? If it’s going to be a hectic working week – do you make anything time-consuming? Personally, if I’m tired I don’t cook complicated dishes and eat simple dishes, including lots of different salads. Hopefully, you eat well and do not buy unhealthy quick and junk meals as I do. Moreover, it seems to me that to make a salad or simple pasta at home for your tomorrow lunch is much cheaper and healthier than to eat any junk-food. Thus, eating healthy foods whiteout spending a lot is possible, and I suggest you to start prepare salads like this one. I love beets and add it everywhere, caramelized beets is even more tasty! Eat the salad, man! 😀Midweek salad

Midweek Salad

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients
1 medium beet, cooked
2-3 tsp brown sugar
1/2 Tbsp balsamic or wine vinegar
1 Tbsp olive oil
100-120g green beans
10-15g butter
8-10 cherry tomatoes, yellow or red, cut into halves
60-80g feta cheese, crumbled
bull’s blood leaves, a handful
2 tsp black sesame seeds
1-2 Tbsp pumpkin seeds, toasted
S&P to taste
extra virgin olive oil
basil micro sprouts, optional
  • Cut the beet into small cubes or wedges. In a frying pan or saucepan, combine vinegar, oil and sugar on medium heat; mix to combine. Add beet cubes and swirl to coat. Cook on a medium heat for 7-10 minutes.
  • In a small saucepan, put beans and cover with water, add a butter, some salt and bring to boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 4-5 minutes. Drain the water.
  • On a serving plate, arrange washed leaves, put on beat cubes, beans, tomatoes and feta. Sprinckle with sesame and pumpkin seeds. Drizzle with olive oil, if desired, garnish with basil and season to taste. Enjoy!

Veal with pink pepper and squash puree

 Hey guys! What’s the autumn in your country/city? The weather here finally became amazing – only +29C! And in my home-city in Russia is  -7C! Which weather do you like more?
 I had the leftovers of squash in my fridge.. and I needed to come up with something to have for dinner. A very simple way to use it – make savory pancakes, but that idea seemed too boring for me. Further ‘excavations’ brought me a beet, a piece of pecorino cheese and a glass of red wine. And the idea came up!  Give it up and just drink wine. 😀
 So, the measurements in the recipe are given roughly, don’t be afraid to be an artist and make it to suit your own taste. The dish has a wonderful flavour, and this is a very simple way to cook. I served it over a bed of mashed squash and potatoes, and that was incredibly satisfying! Bright and slightly sweet squash and beet, mildly spicy pink pepper give that contented and warm-inside feeling which is what autumn cooking about.
Veal with pink pepper and squash puree

Veal with pink pepper and squash puree

  • Servings: 1
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients
100-150g veal, cut into cubes
5 pink peppercorns, crushed
few sage leaves
1-2 Tbsp dry red wine, optional
80-120g squash or pumpkin, cooked and mashed
1 Tbsp beet, cooked and cut into cubes
1 small potato, cooked and mashed, optional
1-2 Tbsp pecorino cheese, grated
sea salt, to taste
1 Tbsp olive oil
 
Method
  • In a bowl put veal cubes, pink pepper, some salt and chopped sage. Pour in wine and stir well. Cover and let marinate for 10-20 minutes.
  • Make vegetable puree for the garnish. Combine mashed squash, potato and cheese together. Season to taste.
  • Heat an oil in a frying pan over medium heat. When oil is hot, add meat and fry it. Turn occasionally until done as desired and browned on all sides.
  • Mix pan-fried veal with beet cubes.
  • Put the squash puree on a serving plate. Arrange veal on top. Sprinkle with sage and pecorino cheese, if desired.
Of course a great glass of red wine goes hand in hand with this delicious veal.  😉
Enjoy the dinner!

Russian beetroot salad

This simple salad is well-known in Russia. It brings back memories about my childhood, parents’ home and cold evenings, when we made the salad and then ate it. Beets, walnuts and garlic is a very good source of vitamins and oils, which is important during winter days. Prunes is another wonderful ingredient here, it adds sweetness to the salad (especially if the beets aren’t sugary); moreover, prunes have health benefits – they have a high anti-oxidant content and contain dietary fiber*.

 I still love and make this salad. For me it’s certainly a good and comforting recipe. You can serve it also as a side dish to grilled meat, burgers or chicken. I hope you do give it a try! So easy and so tasty! 🙂
Russian beetroot salad

Russian beetroot salad

  • Servings: 2-3
  • Difficulty: easy
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Russian beet saladIngredients
2 medium beets
6-8 prunes (dried plums), pitted
2 cloves of garlic, minced
a handful of walnuts
2-3 Tbsp sour cream
salt, black pepper to taste
fresh dill, optional, for garnish
rye bread, for serving
Preparation
  • Boil or roast beets until they’re tender. Cool, peel and grate beets (using medium-hole grater).
  • If prunes are too dry, soak them in a warm water for 10-15 minutes. Then roughly chop prunes and walnuts.
  • Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Garnish with dill, if desire. Serve with rye bread.
Enjoy!

Russian cold soup-Sveckolnik

    Sveckolnik [sve’koljnik] – Russian summer cold soup, which goes really well during the summer heat. The name comes from the word “sveckla”, which denotes beetroot.
   When AC and even hundreds of ice cream don’t help you against hot, this light soup refreshes and cools you. 
  The main ingredient is a raw beetroot, it’s high in vitamins, minerals and fiber that can effect the digestive system in a positive ways.
Raw beets are one of the top vegetables for nutritious raw eating, according to Bastyr University.
   You can include this light soup in your balanced diet and it takes only few minutes to prepare it.
Svekolnik-5
Ingredients:
beetroot – 2 small
cucumbers – 3-4
eggs – 1-2 per plate
a bunch of spring onion
a small bunch of dill
1 garlic clove
buttermilk 400 ml
water 200 ml
salt, sugar to taste
sour cream (optional)

Better to choose small young beets. And you can substitute raw beets with boiled, if you like.

Shred beets and cucumbers, put them in a deep plate.
Boil eggs for 10 minutes, let cool and cut them into chunks.
Svekolnik-3
Slice green onions, put it in a cup and add some salt. With teaspoon begin to grind the salt into onions.
Svekolnik
Add crushed garlic and mix.
Svekolnik-2
Combine together beets, cucumbers, eggs, onions and dill. Add a pinch of sugar.
Svekolnik-4
For the liquid part buttermilk is mixed with cold drinking water, the volume and thickness of it totally depends on your taste.
 If you can find “salted lassi”  (yougurt drink)-use it, no need to dilute with water; in Arabian countries it’s called “laban up”, in Russia – “tan”, “sivorotka” .

Pour the buttermilk over dry ingredients and mix well. Sprinkle some dill.

Svekolnik-6
  Enjoy! 🙂
You can serve it with a dollop of sour cream and rye bread.

Name it!

So the salad which I’ve written about called as “broom” or “brush”, composed of raw vegetables, it evacuates the bowels as a broom (sweeps out all waste products from or digestive system).

 It has the specific flavour which may varies depending on a beetroot – more sweeter or rough. You need to press several times thinly shreded vegetables (raw!) – that’s it! And if you don’t like in a least add some lemon juice. But here of course sense not in a taste –  in a usefulness. Hope this “broom’ will do you good! 😉
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