Inspired by Ottolenghi’s recipe for a smoked beetroot salad, incorporating some other stuff lying around the fridge and pantry, this colourful salad turned out to be quite a perfect autumn dinner and a good way of using any not-so-fresh sourdough you may have lying around. Smoking the beetroots does require a couple of extra steps but brings out a completely new flavour as well as the juiciness of these veggies. You could simplify the recipe by chopping and simply roasting them, but I’m guessing we all have some extra time on our hands these days, so might as well try something new (and delicious).

Recipe:

Smoked beetroots:

• 4 large beetroots
• 1 cup of rice
• lemon peel, thyme, rosemary

Dressing:

• Juice of 2 lemons
• 1 tbs honey
• A generous drizzle of olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper

Toppings (and bottoms):

• Handful of rocket
• 3 ripe figs
• Fresh basil leaves
• Soft Goat’s cheese
• Caramelised nuts (instructions below)
• Crunchy sourdough croutons (instructions below)

Method:

1. For a visual step-by-step method to make the smoked beetroots click Here. While the beets are roasting, you can prep the rest of the ingredients.
2. For the dressing, put all the ingredients in a mason jar and tumble well to get it nice and uniform.
3. To caramelise the nuts,  roast your nuts of choice on low-medium heat, flipping them around occasionally. Add a teaspoon of honey after 5 minutes, stir well to make sure they are all covered by it and remove from heat.
4. Chop the sourdough in chunks, drizzle it with olive oil, sprinkle with some rosemary and thyme and roast on a pan over medium heat until nice and golden. The bread should be nice and crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside (Try one and then try really hard not to eat them on their own before the salad is done). Set aside.
5. Once the beets have cooled down, peel them and cut into bite-size pieces.
6. Arrange the rocket in a thin layer on a large serving plate. Drizzle with a third of your dressing. Cover the rocket with all the beetroot pieces and top with pieces of figs. At this point drizzle the salad with the rest of the dressing.
7. Cover the salad with the crunchy bread chunks, nuts, cheese and fresh basil leaves. The salad is pretty much a complete meal in itself but feel free to serve on the side of some protein or with some extra toasted bread.