I love beets…cooked with butter or canned pickled beets. Amy harvested 12 to 15 nice sized beets from her garden so I knew I needed to do a beet recipe. Mary Jo just borrowed Mark Bittman’s, The Food Matters Cookbook from the library and she saw this recipe for beet tartare. I’m always interested in trying new appetizers so beet tartare it is!
Tartare refers to raw, uncooked as in beef tartare. Bittman actually does use raw beets for his version of this and chops up the raw beets in a food processor. I chose to roast the beets and then finely dice them. You could probably pulse the roasted beets in a food processor too and it will save a lot of time in the preparation.
When I got done mixing this together, we tried it a couple different ways. Bittman recommended using Belgian endive leaves filled with the tartare and topped with cheese. It was good on the endive leaf, but each little bulb of endive cost $1.30 and I only got 7 usable leaves. Kind of extravagant but it is an option, especially for a very low calorie appetizer. Mary Jo tried some on a Triscuit cracker and said the two didn’t pair well together.
We determined that a toasted baguette is the best way to have this. I bought one of those take-and-bake French baguettes. The texture was really nice and it toasted up perfectly, no baking necessary. For the cheese topping we tried crumbled feta on top and the flavor was just not right. The blue cheese, sour cream mix is perfect and really makes for a great appetizer.
Beets are in season right now…perfect time to fix up roasted beet tartare.
Ingredients
- 2 lg. beets , roasted and diced
- 1/4 cup red onion , finely chopped
- 1 tbsp prepared horseradish
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 1/2 tbsp chopped capers
- 1 or 2 tbsp chopped parsley
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 2 tbsp sour cream
- 2 tbsp blue cheese , crumbled
- French baguette , thinly sliced and toasted
- chives or parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Roast foil wrapped beets on a baking sheet, in a 400° oven for 50 to 75 mins, depending on size, until a paring knife easily penetrates with little resistance. Set aside to cool or refrigerate for 1 day.
- Remove the skin and root end and dice the beet into 1/4 inch or less pieces, place in a bowl.
- In another bowl, large enough for the beets, mix the onion, horseradish, oil, lemon juice, capers, parsley, salt and pepper, then fold in the beets.
- Mix the sour cream and blue cheese in a small bowl.
- Brush both sides of the baguette slices lightly with olive oil and toast in a hot skillet, 1 or 2 minutes per side.
- To serve, spread the baguette with cheese and add the beet tartare, garnish if desired.
I love beef tartare and I love beets, so when I saw this recipe I knew that it would be great. It was every bit as delicious as I imagined.
Joe is meticulous when he dices foods, but I’m too impatient so I would have pulsed this in the food processor, while being careful not to turn it into a sauce.
Great dish for entertaining!
We love beets, and plan to try this as soon as we can get to the farmer’s market!
Thanks for the comment Al. Mary Jo really likes it so I know you and Sue will too, ; ).