Beet, Blood Orange, Watercress
Source: Nigel Slater, Greenfeast: Autumn, Winter
Recipe Type: Salads | Seasons: Winter
Bright flavors for a cold day.
Serves 2
INGREDIENTS
14 0z/400g beets, small raw
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 radishes
2 blood oranges
5 cups/100g watercress
10 mint leaves
a handful parsley leaves
2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
For the dressing:
2 tablespoons blood orange juice
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
PREPARATION
Set the oven at 425°F/200°C. Place a large piece of aluminum foil in a roasting pan. Wash and trim the beets, taking care not to break their skins, and place them in the foil. Add the olive oil, 2 tablespoons of water, and a grinding of salt and pepper, then scrunch the edges of the foil together to seal. Bake the beets for forty-five to sixty minutes till tender to the point of a knife, then remove and set aside.
Slice the radishes in half and put them in a mixing bowl. Slice the peel from the oranges, taking care to keep any escaping juice, remove the skin from the segments, then add to the radishes. Peel the beets and cut each one in half, then into quarters, and add to the mixing bowl.
Wash and trim the watercress. (I like to dunk it in a bowl of ice water for twenty minutes to crisp up.) Put the mint and parsley leaves into the orange and beet together with the trimmed watercress and pumpkin seeds.
Make the dressing: put the blood orange juice in a small bowl, add the sherry vinegar, season with salt and pepper then pour over the salad and toss gently.
Reprinted with permission from Greenfeast: Autumn, Winter by Nigel Slater, copyright © 2020. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House.” Photography copyright: Jonathan Lovekin © 2020.
