Rich red salads

Packed with vitamin C, beetroot is worth dressing up to encourage everyone to go for seconds.

ihave been juicing these gorgeous purple globes for years. Beetroot are very high in vitamin C, but it’s said you destroy more than half of this by cooking beetroot.

My Mum grew loads of beetroot, both round and cylindrical. as far as i can remember, we never ate them raw. She always cooked them whole for about half an hour, with the skin intact, not even cutting off the wee ‘tails’ that stuck out the bottom. then she would skin them (easy once cooked although they can squirt juice out all over the place), slice them very thinly, and sprinkle brown sugar and lemon juice in between and over the slices and that would be part of our dinner.

i decided to go one step further and grate them, adding a concoction all of my own as a dressing, but you can always go for your favourite flavours if you wish.

Grating beetroot is always messy. it doesn’t matter how careful i am; somehow it seems to find its way onto a pale piece of fabric, plus stain my hands, the cutting board and the dish cloth.

what follows is one cooked beetroot salad and one raw – so you can try both and see what tickles your fancy.

Funnily enough, the Orange, Mint and Beetroot Salad recipe originally used cooked grated beetroot, but i like it raw. it’s best to leave it to sit for an hour before serving so the sesame and orange flavours can soak into the beetroot. Sprinkling the last three ingredients on right before serving gives your salad a unique and delicate look, and the four different textures of beetroot, mint, orange zest and sesame seeds complement each other perfectly.