Hope your week is going well? The recipe I planned for today is inspired by cool, moody autumn and as luck would have it our weather has totally backtracked and bestowed a few warm and sunny, almost summery days on us after we have said goodbye to summer. I’m not complaining as I have been loving the warmth this week – I took Monday off to sit in my garden and read – but it rendered my recipe a little less relevant. I still decided to go ahead with it today as I’m sure that it will come in handy soon enough. It’s easy to make, cosy and delicious, full of flavour and texture and makes for a fantastic autumn or winter side or a part of a varied mezze spread.
This recipe is in part inspired by a Greek dish called skordalia, which is basically beetroots (cooked usually) served with intensely garlicky sauce or dip based on either ground almonds, starchy potatoes or rehydrated stale bread. For my dish, I’ve decided to roast my beetroots in the oven as that’s how I enjoy them most and serve them on a bed of creamy cauliflower mash / dip flavoured with roasted walnuts and roasted garlic cloves and topped with a drizzle of tangy-sweet balsamic glaze. I strongly recommend baking both cauliflower and the beetroots – if you decide to do them both at once, take care not to overcrowd the tray as too much moisture will inhibit the roasting process. You could also steam the cauliflower while roasting your beets, but roasted florets contribute so much more flavour in my opinion. I’ve made my mash creamy by incorporating a few tablespoons of roasted walnut butter. You can get it in shops these days, but it is so ridiculously easy and quick to make at home that I would not bother. As opposed to almonds or hazelnuts, walnuts are quite soft and oily so once they get beautifully golden in the oven, they get churned into silky smooth butter in no time. My really old and on its last legs food processor only needed about 3 minutes to do the job. It stores for ages and it will bring flavours of roasted cauliflower or celeriac to another level. The final component that really brings this dish together is balsamic glaze and once again, you can simply buy it, but it’s so easy and quick to make that I prefer to make my own. I detailed how to do that below if you are similarly inclined. This simple dish is beautiful on its own, but if you want to make it into more of a main meal, serve it with some crusty bread or olive oil crackers, Kalamata olives and a big green crunchy salad. I hope you’ll love it as much as we have.
200 g / 2 cups walnuts
BALSAMIC GLAZE REDUCTION (if making from scratch)
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar 2 tbsp maple syrup or sugar, adjust to taste
BALSAMIC GLAZE / REDUCTION
