Explosive colour and nutrition!

It is clearly Salad Season. It has been stiflingly hot and muggy in the last few days, “The hottest day in 160 years in London” apparently. 36 degrees!

The secret benefit of this weather is that I am less inclined to nourish myself with tea and biscuits.  Suddenly I am all inspired to use kale, kale, kale!  and it doesn’t even feel like work!

The only drawback with this recipe was that I used an oven to roast the beetroot, so it made the kitchen quite hot and stuffy.  A great alternative is to barbecue  by placing around the edges of the grill when the fiercest heat has subsided and just let them come to, until they can be pierced easily, all charred and meltingly sweet.

As ever by dropping the cheese element, it adheres to the NORI protocol and also meets veggies’, vegans’, gluten-free requirements.

You can either barbecue or simply roast your beetroot. You can barbecue your cauliflower too, or shove it under the grill or dry fry on a griddle. The options are myriad. You could also cook the beetroots earlier in the day and set aside. The flavour is severely muted if you keep them in the fridge thereafter though. All the greens can be switched up with what is available. I used kale as I had some in the fridge. Rocket or any other deep green leafy lettuces of any description will work well. I reckon even broccoli florets or tenderstem at a pinch.

The beetroots were roasted with garlic and I just squashed it and incorporated it into the salad… it’s a great marriage of savoury garlic and sweet beets!