Raw and crunchy – Golden beet salad, hearts of palm and edamame with poached egg, cilantro raspberry vinaigrette
Cru et croquant – Salade de betteraves crues, coeurs de palmiers et edamame, vinaigrette coriandre-framboise
I usually eat my beets cooked. This time I decided to eat them raw and grate them, like you would do with carrots. They’re equally delicious, and thinking about it, prefer them raw, their texture is crunchy like a carrot and their sweetness is even more pronounced. For people who hate beets, I would suggest to give it a try to eat them raw. France is a big importer and consumer of hearts of palm, I remember when I was young, my mom used them a lot in salads, so I was glad I could find some in the store here. Basically it’s the middle of the palm trunk that has been cooked. This salad has a lot of textures, and complimentary flavors (nutiness of the edamame, sweetness of beets and carrots) so it’s quite interesting for the palate. It’s bright, it’s fresh, it’s crunchy, so pretty to look at too. The carrots are cut with a peeler to make ribbons, you can’t really yell on the picture since they’re at the bottom of the plate. I used a special vinegar I brought back from France, it’s made with raspberry pulp and is not as acid as regular raspberry vinegar but more fruity and thicker. Here it is – Those fruit pulp vinegars are becoming very popular, they add a lot of character to any dish. You can find different flavors such as mango, fig, etc… Ingredients for 2
- 2 medium size golden beets, peeled and grated
- 4 medium size carrots, peeled and cut in ribbons
- 1 can of hearts of palm, cut in 1 inch pieces
- 4 tbs edamame
For the vinaigrette
- 4 tbs olive oil
- 2 tbs raspberry pulp vinegar
- 1 tsp cilantro, chopped
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Make ribbons with carrots using a potato peeler. Grate beets. Place carrot ribbons on a plate, then add beets.
Divide edamame around and lay hearts of palm all around the plate. Poach eggs.
For the vinaigrette, mix ingredients together. Pour vinaigrette on top of the salad. Add egg and add extra vinaigrette on top.
Hmm…. raw beet salad. I’ll be honest, I’v only ever eaten them cooked (and preferably – cook and pickled) but this has peaked my interest. I bought a really big bag of ruby beets the other day and been wondering what the heck I was going to do with them ever since. I think this just might be the trick – of sorts… you know, with bleedy red ones instead of your lush golden. I’ll have to make another couple of adjustments, sadly ONE of use has become toxic to anything soy… I’m thinking fresh chickpeas… what do you think?