Beetroot and feta salad

Winter is coming!

Daylight savings ended on Sunday and oh how I miss it.  I don’t mind getting up in the dark, but I miss having light in the evenings.  Today I had to spend ages fiddling around with the lights in the kitchen to take the photographs, because food under fluorescent light looks sad and unappetising. When I trialled this recipe it took just over 5 minutes, but today it took me nearly 8 because I spent so much time trying to position food under the LED lights not the fluros.

With daylight savings ending this weekend and rain today, it definitely felt like the seasons were changing.  A beetroot salad feels like a perfect autumn meal, root vegetables are a winter thing while salads are a summer thing.

I love beetroot and a beautiful roast beetroot salad is one of my favourite things to order at my local Mediterranean cafe. But I’ve never found the time to make something similar at home. I wanted a way to work the classic beetroot/feta combo into my life in a quick way.  Canned beetroot to the rescue.

Grilling the canned beetroot isn’t quite as tasty as roast beetroot, but it does add a caramelized taste which works well with the creamy feta.  As with all canned vegetables, it is essential to rise the beetroot well before grilling to get rid of the yucky juice they come in.  Canned beetroot also tends to be overly sweet, so don’t skimp on the salt, which is needed to balance the sweet.

Once again I used my sandwich press griller, George Foreman to the rescue. This could be done on the stovetop, but the ancient oven in my apartment would take 7 minutes just to get the grill plate hot.