Beet Salad With Orange and Black Olives

When I pulled out the last beet  from my garden yesterday, I had no idea what I was going to do with it, other then the usual roast beet with balsamic, garlic, and olive oil. Though I still like this idea, I really want to try different way of serving beet to my family. Unfortunately, after I finished making the salad, my son choses to eat simple salmon, egg salad, and focaccia bread. He thinks beet has acrid taste that he can not tolerate. On the other hands, my husband and I really love beet. Even plain boiled beet tastes good for us. So, discovering a different way of serving beet by adding oranges, olives, and a tad of orange flower water is quite a delicious discovery.

The recipe for this salad came from Yotam Ottolenghi's book "Plenty", which is my most my favorite cookbook to go whenever I want to make fresh vegetable dishes. The original salad actually includes red onion, and does not include thyme.

I must also let you know, that I have been making so many vegetable dishes from this book, which all seem to captivated my heart. It is very rare for me to like so many recipe in one book, it is also very rare that I always looking forward to try every single page in the book. That is just telling you how good the book is, right? Anyway, here is my adaptation from Ottolenghi's Beet, Orange and Olive Salad. By the way, if you don't have his book, you might be interested to check out more delicious recipe at the Guardian. Hope you like it!

Yotam Ottolenghi's Beet Salad With Orange, and Black Olives
Serve 3 

1 and 3/4 pounds beet (if you can get beet in different color, it will be even prettier)
3 tablespoons grape seed oil 
salt and freshly crack black pepper, to taste
2 stems thyme
3 oranges, peel, then cut into segments

1/4 cup Nicoise olives

1/4 cup roughly chopped parsley

1 to 2 tablespoon chopped cilantro

Vinaigrette:
4 tablespoon grape seed oil
2 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon orange flower water

salt and freshly crack pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Peel and cut the beet into wedges. Place it in a bowl  along with oil, salt, and freshly crack black pepper. Give it a few toss, and transfer the whole thing into a baking sheet. Lay 2 stems of thyme on top. Bake in the middle rack until soft, about 45 to 60 minutes depending on the size of the beets. Once the beets are soft, remove from the oven, and let it cool. Once cooled, transfer onto large serving bowl, add orange segments, olives, chopped parsley and cilantro.

In a small bowl, combine grape seed oil, red wine vinegar, orange flower water, salt, and pepper. Mix well. Add to salad bowl, toss well. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

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