I love elaborate dishes – as you may have guessed from this post, for example – but elaborate dishes are a bit like statement gowns: you love them, you admire them, you may even wear them quite often, but for most of us, they aren’t an option for everyday. Most of the time, what you need are the jeans and the navy blazers of the culinary world: quick weekday meals and recipes for cooking vegetables in ways that people actually want to eat.

The latter genre is my particular favourite: possibly because it has taken me years to get there, I’m genuinely happy every time I learn to prepare a delicious vegetable dish. Some of my discoveries are on the blog under The Humble Vegetable tag and today, we have a new entry to the list: the noble beetroot!

Many people find the earthy taste of beetroot too much, others don’t like the texture. This extremely easy recipe (originally from Sabrina Ghayour’s Sirocco, but slightly modified) addresses both of these issues. Yogurt tones down the intensity of the flavour and blending the ingredients until they are smooth tackles the texture. The original recipe adds chopped mint to the mix, but I actually prefer it without. I have served the dip on its own, with butternut squash orzotto, with lamb meatballs and several other things. It’s been the unlikely hit of my recent meals and even people who don’t especially like beetroot, might like this. I don’t think it would convince genuine haters, though.

You’ll need:
– 500 grams of precooked beetroots (the original recipe tells you to avoid the ones in vinegar, but I like both the natural and pickled versions)
– up to 500 ml Greek yogurt: add it in stages, to see how strong/weak you like it
– a teaspoon or two (or three) of ground coriander seeds (I think cumin would also work well)
– salt to taste
– if this isn’t enough flavour for you, add garlic and some lemon juice

Blend, taste, adjust, serve.

I addition to other benefits, the vivid pink colour is a pleasure to look at. Partly thanks to this, I’ve discovered the avocado toast to end all avocado toast: mashed avocado on toasted sourdough bread, topped with the beetroot yogurt topped with baba ganoush or, if you want to take the colour scheme to the max, with mashed persimmon. Or both.