The Perfect Beet Salad

Hey! This is Mat, Jen's husband guest-posting today.

This beet salad was inspired by the beet salad served at Lincoln Restaurant in Washington, DC. - one of the best salads we've ever had. Jen was so excited about this salad, but unfortunately we live in NYC & couldn't go back again to have it. So, I thought, why not make something similar for her? You can also try this recipe, since it turned out pretty good Here we go.

Ingredients:

Raw beets, mixed colors
Sea salt
Micro-greens or sprouts
Radishes
Nicoise olives, drained
Ginger
Honey
Red wine vinegar
Olive Oil
Ahi tuna - sushi grade
Soy sauce or
Sesame seeds

If you can find baby beets, they work best but you can just as easily cut bigger ones. In a pot of boiling water, add 1/2 tsp salt and boil the beets whole until tender - about 25-30 mins for smaller ones, 45 for larger. When finished, drop into an ice bath to cool them. The outer skin should peel off easily. If larger, cut the beets into bite-sized chunks.

Finely grate some peeled ginger until you have about 1/2 tsp of mash. In a bowl, mix that with 1/4 tsp sea salt, 1/4 C honey, 1/4 C vinegar and 1/3 C olive oil. Finely chop or grate the nicoise olives into a crumb. Slice very thin slices of radish.

In a large bowl, roughly toss the beets, radishes and greens in the dressing and then place a batch into a serving bowl, spreading about 1 tsp of the olive crumb on top.

Heat a skillet with a smeared layer of olive oil. When very hot, gently place the tuna into the pan, sear for 45 seconds on one side, flip and do the same on the other. Remove from the heat and let rest.

In a small bowl, mix 1 Tbs soy sauce with 1 tsp honey. Slice the tuna into 1/4" slices and plate, then drizzle with the soy mix. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

The original recipe calls for sunflower sprouts for the micro-greens but you can substitute with any hearty stemmed green such as daikon sprouts or snow pea shoots. Traditionally beet salads are served with mache, which is also a good green but more difficult to find and a bit delicate.

images by jen ramos