It's a dish that can take five minutes or 50, depending mainly on whether you want to cook the beetroot yourself. You can also use couscous, which cooks in moments, or quinoa, which takes about 20. (I took the middle ground here, and used brown bulghur wheat - this cooks in less than five minutes and is, I think, far more interesting in flavour than couscous, and more nutritious too.)
Either way, it's brilliantly purple, and with interesting textural contrasts.
You can eat this hot or at room temperature. I like it as a main meal, with some feta on the top or some thick home-made tzatziki on the side, but it works just as well as a side dish.
Ingredients
Beetroot, either raw or pre-cooked (not the sort in vinegar)
250g quinoa, brown bulghur wheat or couscous
2oz/ 50g shelled walnuts halves
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp nigella (black onion) seeds
To serve
25g/ 1oz feta cheese, optional
Or, 1/2 cucumber, 1 garlic clove and 4 tbsp plain yoghurt (Greek-style is best)
Method
If you are cooking the beetroot, give them a good scrub, wrap in a foil parcel and then bake for about 45 minutes or until tender to the point of a knife. Or you can use pre-cooked beetroot.
If you are using walnut halves, break them up a bit. (You can reserve a few halves to decorate, if you like.) Cook the bulghur wheat or quinoa according to the packet instructions. Make sure there is no excess water, then mix with all the other ingredients. Season generously, adding more lemon or nigella seeds if you think it needs it (I like to sprinkle on a few extra seeds at the end).
Serve it just as it is, or with the feta crumbled and sprinkled over. Or you can make a kind of thick tzatziki by grating half a cucumber, squeezing out the excess liquid and folding in some yoghurt and finely chopped garlic (and maybe some fresh chopped dill or mint, if you have any). Serve alongside the beetroot mixture. The creamy yoghurt and the slight tang of the garlic is very pleasing alongside the beetroot.
No comments:
Post a Comment