On the beet
A tasty way to use up your beetroot stalks and leaves
BRING THE RHYTHMS
of the seasons into your kitchen with this timeless guide to celebrating produce all year round.
Seasoning spans the four seasons, with insights into more than 50 vegetables and fruits.
Award-winning food writer Angela Clutton explores their seasonality, offering tips on shopping and storing, countless ways to use them, flavour partners and how to minimise waste.
This book illustrates how embracing seasonality is about understanding the cycles of the land and the climate — even, or especially, as it changes — and how they have the ability to make things taste the best possible versions of themselves.
BAKED ZA’ATAR MEATBALLS WITH TOMATO SAUCE AND BEETROOT TIPS
This is not just a terrific dinner, but shows off just how beetroot stalks and leaves are delicious and useful in their own right, too. This dish would certainly be nice enough without the beetroot stalks cooked into the base of the dish, or indeed the beetroot leaves added for the finish — but not nearly so good as with them. Serve with plenty of couscous, stirred through with lots of chopped herbs, salt and a squeeze of lemon.
ingredients
For the sauce 2 red onions
3 Tbsp olive oil
4 garlic cloves stalks and leaves from 6 beetroots
5 anchovy fillets, drained of oil 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes 2 Tbsp grated fresh horseradish 2 Tbsp cre`me fraˆıche salt and black pepper
For the meatballs
1 red onion
2 garlic cloves
400g minced beef or lamb 1 Tbsp za’atar
80g breadcrumbs
1 egg
2 Tbsp olive oil salt and black pepper
method
Make the sauce first: Peel and chop the onions. Heat the olive oil in a large deep frying pan and cook the onions over a gentle heat until starting to tenderise and taking on a little colour. Peel and finely chop the garlic cloves, and add those too.
While they are cooking, separate the beetroot leaves from the stalks. Sit the leaves in very cold water to keep them perky. Finely chop the stalks, and add to the frying pan.
Let them cook down for 5 minutes, stirring, then add the anchovies and chopped tomatoes. Rinse out the tomato tin with water and add that to the pan too. Season. Simmer for 20 minutes. Set aside while you make the meatballs.
For the meatballs: Preheat the oven to 210C fan.
Peel and grate the onion and garlic into a bowl, add the minced meat, za’atar and breadcrumbs, and season well. Beat the egg and add, then use your hands to bring the mixture together. Divide into 20 equal pieces, rolling them into balls as you go. Sit the meatballs on a baking tray, drizzle over the oil and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
For the last 5 minutes of the meatballs’ baking time, put the sauce back on the heat and stir in the horseradish. Lift the beetroot leaves out of the water and sit on kitchen paper to dry, then just before the meatballs are ready, stir the cre`me fraˆıche and beetroot leaves through the sauce. Remove the meatballs from the oven and sit them on top of the sauce. Pour over any oil left behind in the baking tray, grind over plenty of black pepper and serve straight away.
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