Athena Calderone's Blood Orange and Roasted Beets with Yogurt, Tarragon and Hazlenuts
I love beets with a shallot vinaigrette, which I’ve posted before. But this recipe, from Athena Calderone’s Cook Beautiful book, has just usurped that old favorite. They’re roasted in foil with salt, pepper and olive oil and are good enough to eat even before the delicious blood-orange vinaigrette gets mixed in. Someone ate all of the hazelnuts in the house (and forgot to add them to the chalkboard shopping list!), so I substituted almonds. And since I used all of the yogurt in the Dahi Wala Murgh we were also having for dinner last night, I wasn’t able to serve the beets atop Greek yogurt. While I’ll do that in the future, trust me, these beets were exceptional sans the dairy. I’m hoping for a better photo in the future, but when you’ve got 5 hungry humans awaiting food, plus a pre-dinner Zoom date with friends, staging and capturing finished pictures isn’t always the priority or possible. Hop on over to Eyeswoon for a far more beautiful and inspiring photo of this delectable dish.
Note: I only had red beets, but the recipe calls for half red and half golden.
Serves 4
Ingredients
4 medium red beets
4 medium golden beets
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
Salt and freshly cracked pepper, 4 or 5 sprigs of thyme
1/4 cup (70 g) hazelnuts
3 blood oranges
1 small shallot, finely chopped
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3/4 cup (180 ml) full-fat Greek yogurt
4 or 5 sprigs fresh tarragon
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 425°F (220 ̊C).
Place the red beets in the center of a large piece of foil. Drizzle them with oil and season with salt and pepper. Add a few thyme sprigs and tightly seal the foil around the beets to make a packet. Repeat with golden beets. Place the packets on a rimmed baking sheet and roast until the beets are tender when pierced with a knife, 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the size of your beets. Unwrap the beets and let them cool slightly. Remove the skin by pinching and peeling it off with your fingers, or rubbing it with a paper towel.
While the beets are roasting, toast the hazelnuts on a rimmed baking sheet for 4 to 6 minutes, or until they’re golden and fragrant. Place the toasted nuts on a kitchen towel and rub them against one another to remove the skins (don’t worry if all of the skins don’t come off .) Roughly chop the nuts.
Squeeze the juice from half of an orange into a medium bowl. Add the shallot and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper and whisk in the oil.
Using a sharp knife, remove the pith and peel from the remaining 11⁄2 blood oranges and slice them crosswise in 1⁄4-inch-thick (6-mm-thick) rounds.
Cut the beets into wedges and toss them with some of the dressing, making sure to keep the golden and red beets in separate bowls.
Just before serving, season the yogurt with salt and pepper. Arrange the orange slices and beet wedges over the yogurt, spooning some of the dressing over the top. Sprinkle with the chopped hazelnuts and a healthy dose of tarragon.
