Spring salad with beetroot, strawberries, marinated red onions, arugula and sprouts...
Last week I had the pleasure to work at a wonderful event: a cookery book presentation with a cooking show and a small lunch with recipes from the book. It was during one of the Enologismi events organized by my friend Laura Riolfatto and the book was "Insalate per un anno" (A year of salads) by Valentina Raffaelli (you can see some photos of the event HERE).
The book is really lovely, with beautiful photography and illustrations and enhancing seasonality and biodiversity. The idea is simple: to prepare salads that are everything but boring in every season of the year. In Italy we have so many vegetables, yet... most restaurants offer only the usual and quite banal salad consisting of lettuce, roughly chopped tomatoes and grated carrots, and as vegetables the same grilled zucchini, bell peppers and eggplants... throughout the whole year! A real pity, especially if we consider all the delicious regional varieties of vegetables we have.
The book is an exploration of Italy's regions and provides insights on the different varieties of herbs, vegetables and even names we give to the same produce. I appreciated that the author wrote at the beginning that recipes are not intended to be followed by the letter, that ingredients can be changed and adapted, as we may not find the same ingredients in different places.
She also shares recipes for dressings and preserves, and entices to be adventurous and try different combinations of flavors. Fruit and vegetables are often combined together, like in the salad I am sharing in this post. My version is a revisitation, as I changed some ingredients. In the book Valentina makes a panzanella with beetroot and strawberries (panzanella is a Tuscan dish with stale bread softened with vinegar), whereas I simply made a salad, added sprouts, and served it with buckwheat couscous and feta cheese on the side. The sweetness of the strawberries and the beetroot paired perfectly with the acidity of the marinated red onions and the bitterness of the arugula and the sprouts.
Healthy, tasty, easy and quick to make. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did!
SALAD WITH BEETROOT, STRAWBERRIES AND MARINATED RED ONIONS
Ingredients for 2:
1 big pre-boiled beetroot
100 gr wild strawberries
120 gr arugula
sprouts
1 red onion
1/2 cup cider vinegar 1/2 cup water e.v.o.oil
pumpkin and sunflower seeds
Method:
Roughly chop the red onion and put in a jar with 1/2 cider vinegar, 1/2 water and 1 teaspoon e.v.o.oil. Leave in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
In the meantime, peel the beetroot and boil until tender to your liking (or use a good quality pre-boiled one if you prefer). Once cooled, slice and put in a bowl.
Slice the strawberries and add to the bowl with arugula, mixed seeds, the marinated red onions and a handful of sprouts. Dress with e.v.o.oil.
Excellent served with a side of buckwheat couscous (or other grain of choice) and feta cheese or tofu marinated with lemon and parsley.
Comments