You’re going to want to get your kitchen gloves ready for this one…
Beets are messy. This recipe is relatively mess-free, but you’ll still end up purple if you’re not careful. One trick is lemon juice, so juice a lemon using your hands when this is all said and done, and you’ll be alright. You can also roast the beets, if you prefer, by making little aluminum foil packets (maybe 2 packets of three small beets each with a tbsp of water, a tbsp of red wine vinegar, salt and pepper).
Know what’s no fun? Peeling beets. And at least in this recipe you boil them whole and then peel them, which probably saves some of the nutrients that would be lost with pre-peeling as well as procrastinating your hand-purple-ing. Yes, I’ve decided that “to hand-purple” is a verb.*
Beet, Orange and Black Olive Salad
5 small beets or 2 large ones
2 medium oranges
1 treviso or red chicory (or radicchio if your province or state, like mine, is fresh out of treviso…)
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
5 tbsp black olives, pitted and halved (please not from a can. They shouldn’t taste horribly brine-y. The fresher the better. They don’t even have to be black. Just use your favourite olives. And if you’re me and the pitting part pretty much decimates the olives, just cut them into smaller pieces).
3 tbsp grapeseed oil (I think Ottolenghi calls for grapeseed oil bcause it’s a more neutral flavour than olive, but you’ve got olives in the salad itself, so I think a fruity olive oil is fine – grand, even. You probably just don’t want anything too bitter)
1 tsp orange flower water (I had a nightmare of a time looking for this in Newfoundland. I did manage to find rose flower water that I purchased years ago for who knows what. I don’t think it had the same effect…think of it as optional, though it kind of makes everything brighter. Do you think a few drops of orange flavouring would work? Or is that a horrible idea?)
1 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar (or more, to taste – I like more bite)
salt and pepper
Directions: Boil the beets (put them in a big pot of water and bring it to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for about an hour and 15 minutes if the beets are small and longer if they’re big. If they’re big and you’re time-pressed, cut them in half before boiling). To test to see if they’re done poke them with a fork. It should go in easily. It’s not going to fall apart like potatoes or anything, but you’ll see that it’s tender.
Let the beets cool (either in the water if you’ve got time, or in a colander if you don’t). Now peel them. So get your kitchen gloves on. A trick is to rub them with paper towels, and minimize the hand-purple-ing effect.* Then cut them in half, and then cut each half into wedges (approx. “1”-thick at the base”, says Ottolenghi. I say “small-ish”).
Put the beets in a large serving bowl.
Now the oranges. You know, you might be fine getting the purple off your hands just by doing this, but you probably are actually going to do this WHILE the beets are boiling, to save time. Cut the tops and bottoms off the oranges using a paring knife. Then remove the peel in slices by slicing down the sides with your knife, trying to remove as much of the white pith as possible without wasting too much of the orange flesh. It’s better to cut into the flesh than leave the white, though. Then, holding the orange over the bet bowl, slice into the orange along its skin like a grapefruit (cut both sides of the pith that connects it from top to bottom to try and remove the skeleton of the orange without cutting into too much of the flesh). The flesh should fall out of the pith, but generally you don’t do this perfectly the first time and you need to kind of pull and make a mess of things a few times before it works. If you feel like it you can cut the pith-free orange wedges into beet-sized pieces, or just toss them in with the beets right away.
Cut your treviso or red chicory or radicchio (outside withered leaves removed, as necessary) vertically into 1″-thick slices. That’s where Ottolenghi and I agree on the 1″-thick aspect. Hurray! If they’re too big you’re going to be chomping for awhile. I’d even go 1/2″. Maybe 3/4″ to split the difference if you like following rules. Now break apart the leaves and toss them with the beets and oranges. Combine the remaining ingredients and toss with the salad. Taste and adjust seasoning (more vinegar! More salt! Hopefully not more orange wedges as those are labour-intensive) and serve. You can also chill it and serve it later, or the next day. The leaves don’t wilt like lettuce. And nothing really discolours. The beets kind of get all over the oranges, so it’s slightly less dramatic a presentation, but it still tastes great. You can garnish with more parsley if you’re into that kind of thing.
*to hand-purple: the act of discolouring one’s hand from its natural colour to purple by any means, including peeling beets.
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