food to glow

In partnership with Love Beetroot

Earthy, tangy beets married with smooth creamy ricotta in crunchy filo make a delightful and simple starter or light lunch. Add intriguing nigella seeds and you’ve got the wow factor. A colourful, lip-smacking vegetarian recipe for special occasions – and no occasion!

Beets – like cauliflower – have enjoyed something of a renaissance of late. After many years in the culinary wilderness, beetroot is back.

It’s raw, it’s crisped; it’s juiced, souped, gratineed, curried, baked in cakes and scones, and blitzed into smoothies. In fact no self-respecting health-aware person can ignore its health benefits. Not only the obvious good-for-you fibre, but the unique array of antioxidants and phytonutrients that have researchers scrambling to document its potential use in disease prevention: type 2 diabetes, some cancers, heart disease and eye diseases spring to mind.

The superstars are betalain pigments, a group of compounds that make up the vibrant colours (deep red and deep yellow). Betalains are hugely antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. But that’s not all of course: all varieties of beets are an excellent source of folate and a very good source of manganese, potassium and copper. They are also a good source of dietary fiber, magnesium, phosphorus, vitamin C, iron and vitamin B6. So, all good on the nutrition front.

Sadly, many peoples’ only experiences of beets are negative: over-cooked and heavily-vinegared. I shunned beets for ages, previously having only tasted them as an evil side dish vegetable at school. But in recent years things have changed, and now you can get cooked, packaged beets that are a positive taste addition to the diet, rather than something you feel you should eat because they are healthy. No long boiling or roasting; no messy peeling and days of “murderous” fingers. Just earthy sweetness in an instant.

As part of the #DontSkipABeet campaign from Love Beetroot, chef director Dan Doherty from London’s famed Duck and Waffle has developed some beautifully varied, nutritious and enticing recipes to get us all reaching for beetroot again. Below is the one I tested, and my goodness it’s good! I made these easy tartlets for a family gathering and they were gobbled up with gusto, with not even a shard of phyllo left on the plate. I stretched it to serve five, but do keep it at four – or increase the recipe accordingly. Check their website for loads more ideas and recipes.

Get quality cooked and seasoned (or not) beetroot in the chiller cabinet with the salad ingredients.

Can’t get enough beetroot? Scroll and select recipes from my beetroot recipes link page.

Thank you to Love Beetroot for sponsoring this post. Partnered posts such as this help me to keep bringing you my recipes and content – for free. Thanks to you as well, for supporting not only me but also the quality brands with which I work. I only partner with brands I actually use and like. All opinions are strictly my own.