Month: January 2019

Roasted Beetroot Salad with Yogurt and Tahini

Easy and healthy Roasted Beetroot Salad with Yogurt and Tahini

  • Beetroot Salad
  • Beetroot salad
  • Beetroot Salad

This easy and healthy Roasted Beetroot Salad combines the earthy sweetness of beetroot with creamy Greek yogurt and the nuttiness of tahini. It also looks very attractive as the beetroot juices colour the yogurt a pretty pink and this with the dark red beetroot chunks. I recommend this recipe if you are trying to convert a confirmed beetroot-hater. Often those who claim to dislike this delicious and healthy vegetable have only eaten it when it is chopped into tiny chunks and doused in strong vinegar. If you are beetroot lover, have a look at our recipes for lovely sweet-sour Beetroot Tart and Beetroot Soup with Coconut.

Roasting the beetroots concentrates their flavour and, although it takes around 40 minutes, once they are cooked it takes only a few minutes to assemble the salad. If it is more convenient, you can roast the beetroots the day before you want to eat the salad. I am a big fan of roasting vegetables as I think it improves the flavour and retains the nutrients. Roasting is also a very easy way to cook as you just put them in the oven and leave them to it.

Tahini, which is a paste made from roasted sesame seeds, complements the flavour of the beetroot. It is used in hummus so, even it you have never used it in cooking, you will be familiar with its flavour. It is full of minerals and is healthy as well as very tasty!

When you are entertaining, I think offering a range of different types of salads, to which guests can help themselves, is a great option. Everyone can choose what they like (and come back for more!). This Roasted Beetroot Salad is fantastic in a mix which might include Broad Bean Salad and Roasted Pepper Salad plus a crisp green salad.

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Roasted Beetroot Salad with Tahini and Yoghurt

Roasted Beetroot Salad with Yogurt and Tahini

  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 5
  • Cook Time: 40
  • Total Time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 4–6 as a side dish 1x
  • Category: Salad
  • Method: Roasting
  • Cuisine: Mediterranean
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Description

This Roasted Beetroot Salad combines the sweetness of roasted beetroot with creamy Greek yogurt and nutty tahini.   Once the beetroot have been roasted, it can be assembled in minutes.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 small raw beetroot
  • 300 ml Greek yoghurt 
  • 2 tablespoons tahini
  • 1 clove of garlic (crushed)
  • Salt 

Instructions

  1. Set your oven to 180 C, 350 F or Gas Mark 4.  
  2. Wash your beetroot and loosely wrap each one in kitchen foil.  Place the wrapped beetroot on an oven tray.   Roast the beetroot in the oven for around 40 minutes until soft.   Remove the beetroot from the oven and allow to cool.  When they are cool enough to handle, remove the skins using a sharp knife.
  3. Chop the cooked beetroot into chunks of approximately 1 cm.
  4. Put the Greek yogurt, tahini and crushed garlic clove into a large bowl and mix well.  Add salt to taste.  
  5. Add the chopped beetroot chunks to the mixture in the bowl and stir to ensure that it is coated with the yogurt dressing.

 

Notes

You can use full-fat Greek yogurt or one of the varieties that is lower fat.  I generally use the 5% fat version rather than the 0% fat version.

This salad can be served either warm or at room temperature.  It can be made in advance and keeps well in the fridge for two or three days.

Keywords: beetroot, yogurt, tahini, salad

Loved this recipe? You may also like the following recipes. Or checkout the Recipe Index.

Thai Cucumber Salad

Fried Aubergine with Soy, Honey and Chilli

Aubergine with Soy and Honey

Roasted Pepper Salad

Vegan Beetroot Soup with Coconut

Vegan Beetroot Soup with Coconut

Roasted Beetroot Tart

Beetroot Tart

Celeriac and Apple Soup

Celeriac and Apple Soup – A tasty, warming vegan soup for a cold winter’s day

This Celeriac and Apple Soup is an easy vegan soup recipe that makes a fantastic lunch or supper on a cold winter’s day. It is easy to make and features the classic celery and apple flavour combination. Think Waldorf Salad but warm and comforting!

Celeriac is not the most popular of root vegetables. Its gnarly exterior, which seems perfectly designed to trap soil puts a lot of people off as it seems hard to prepare. Actually, you just need a confident attitude and a good vegetable peeler. Remove the outer skin, together with all the lumpy, gnarly bits, and you are left with a creamy globe of deliciousness that can be used in a whole range of ways in addition to Celeriac and Apple Soup. It is traditionally used in the classic French salad, Celeriac Remoulade, where it is thinly sliced and mixed in a mustard-flavoured dressing. It can also be boiled and mashed or roasted as a side-dish.

Here at tastebotanical we have lots of other recipes for tasty, warming winter soups. What about Beetroot and Coconut Soup? Or Butternut Squash with Peanut Butter? There is tasty Fennel Soup, with its subtle aniseed flavour, and classic Leek and Potato Soup. Vegetable soups are very easy to make and are a fantastic way to increase the amount of fresh vegetables that you eat each day. They are packed with fibre, nutrients and, of course, taste!

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celeriac and apple soup

Celeriac and Apple Soup

  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 35
  • Total Time: 50 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 6
  • Category: Soup
  • Cuisine: British
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Description

This easy, warming vegan winter soup combines the classic flavours of celeriac and apple.

Ingredients

  • 1 celeriac
  • 1 onion
  • 2 medium-sized potatoes
  • 1 tablespoon of oil
  • 1 clove of garlic (crushed)
  • 500 ml vegetable stock 
  • 1 eating apple
  • Optional garnish:  1 eating apple

Instructions

  1. Peel the celeriac using a vegetable peeler to remove the rough outer skin.   Cut it into 1 cm chunks.
  2.  Peel and slice the  onion.
  3. Heat the oil in your saucepan.  Add the celeriac chunks and sliced onions, season them with salt and pepper,  and very gently fry them for around 20 minutes until they are soft and sweet.   It is really important to  add seasoning at this point and to cook gently to bring out the flavour of the vegetables – it will make a huge difference to the taste of your soup.
  4. Next, peel and chop the potatoes and add them to the saucepan with the celeriac and onions.  Cook gently for a few minutes. 
  5. Then, peel the apple, remove the core and chop into rough chunks.  Add the chunks to the vegetables together with the crushed clove of garlic.
  6. Add the stock to your saucepan and simmer the vegetables gently for about 15 minutes.
  7.  Turn off the heat and allow the soup to cool slightly before blending.

  8. If you wish, you can make a dried apple garnish for the soup.   Slice an eating apple thinly vertically (so the slices are “apple shaped”).  Place on a non-stick baking tray and bake in a preheated oven at 200 C/Gas Mark 6 for 30 minutes.  Remove slices and use to decorate the soup.  The apple-shaped slices look good on top of the soup and will also have a concentrated apple flavour which will enhance the taste.

 

Notes

This soup is vegan.

Keywords: soup, vegetarian, vegan, celeriac

Loved this recipe?  You may also like

Vegan Butternut Squash Soup with Peanut Butter

Vegan Butternut Squash Soup

Vegan Beetroot Soup with Coconut

Vegan Beetroot Soup with Coconut

Fennel Soup - vegan or vegetarian

Fennel Soup

Cold tomato soup

Tomato Soup

Asparagus Soup

Asparagus and Pea Soup with  Chervil

Leek potato chive

Leek and Potato Soup

Asian Cucumber Salad

Thai cucumber salad

Asian Cucumber Salad – a five-minute recipe

This easy Asian-style Cucumber Salad is fresh and zesty. The cucumber is dressed with sweetened lime juice, soy sauce and Thai fish sauce flavoured with garlic and chilli.

This salad is exactly what I want to eat in January. Following the culinary excesses of Christmas and the New Year, I am looking for fresh and healthy, flavour-packed dishes which are quick and easy to prepare. This salad takes only five minutes to make and has a fantastic chilli-spiced, sweet and salty dressing to enhance the crunchy cucumber.

Although this Cucumber Salad is Asian-inspired, I quite often use it as an accompaniment to simple grilled fish, such as salmon steaks, but it would also go well with grilled chicken or meat. It is also great as a snack as it has that hit of taste and chilli heat which means that you feel satisfied without taking in lots of calories.

What you need to know about this recipe

  • This is one of the easiest salads that you can make. It really is just a question of peeling and chopping the cucumber, mixing the dressing and combining.
  • Make sure that you use a ceramic or glass bowl for this salad. If you use a metal bowl, it may react with the ingredients.
  • This salad is not vegetarian as the recipe includes Thai fish sauce. If you are a vegetarian, you can substitute the fish sauce with an additional tablespoon of soy sauce. In fact, that will make the recipe vegan.
  • If you don’t like chilli, you can leave it out.
  • You can eat this salad immediately. However, I think the flavour improves if it is kept for an hour or two. Don’t leave it longer than that as the salty dressing will draw the liquid out of the cucumber. That will mean that there is a lot of liquid in the salad and the flavours will be diluted.

Other easy salads

I love salads and eat them all the year around – not just in summer. If you like this recipe, you might also like some of my other salad recipes.

Asian Cucumber Salad recipe

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Thai cucumber salad

Asian Cucumber Salad

  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 5
  • Total Time: 5 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 2 as a side dish 1x
  • Category: Salad
  • Cuisine: Thai
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Description

This fresh-tasting Asian-style Cucumber Salad can be made in five minutes.   The cool crunchy cucumber is enhanced by chilli heat and the sweet-salty dressing.    

I like to eat this kind of salad in January, after the culinary excesses of Christmas and New Year, when its freshness and strong, zesty flavours are especially welcome – as is the fact that it can be thrown together in five minutes!  However, it is just as good on a hot summer day.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 cucumber
  • Half a fresh red chilli, finely chopped (or 1 teaspoon of dried chilli flakes)
  • 1 clove of garlic, crushed
  • 2 tablespoons of Thai fish sauce 
  • 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon of sugar
  • Juice of half a lime

Instructions

  1. Peel the cucumber to remove the dark green outer skin.  Chop into the cucumber into chunks.  I find the easiest way to do this is to cut the cucumber in half lengthways and then slice each half into 1 cm chunks.
  2. In a glass or ceramic bowl combine the finely chopped red chilli (or dried chilli flakes), crushed garlic clove, fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar and lime  juice.   Do not use a metal bowl as this may react with the ingredients.
  3. Add the cucumber chunks to the ingredients in the bowl and mix well.

Notes

This salad can be eaten immediately.  However, I think the flavours improve if it is left in the fridge for several hours.    It also keeps well in the fridge for several days.   

You can make a vegan version of this recipe by replacing the fish sauce with extra soy sauce.

Keywords: cucumber, thai, salad