SALAD OF GRATED BEETS, GRAINS & CELERY

The grated raw beets, marinated briefly in lemon juice, garlic, salt and oil add so much flavor here and you can adapt the rest of the ingredients to suit your pantry and/or taste. Use any cooked grain you’d like. I imagine barley, freekeh, wheat or rye berries all being delicious. Quinoa would work just as well. If you don’t have celery, finely dice carrots or radishes or something else crunchy and most any leafy herb would work. Mint would be fantastic as would basil or chives.

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

For the marinated beets:

2 medium to large beets, trimmed and peeled

2 cloves garlic, minced

scant 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt

1 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

For the salad:

2-3 cups cooked grains, drained (I used farro here)

1 cup thinly sliced celery or other crunchy vegetable (see headnote)

1/2 cup or more roughly chopped parsley and/or chives or other leafy herbs (see headnote)

2 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced or a small chunk of onion, finely diced

2 tablespoons olive oil

1-2 tablespoons lemon juice or vinegar (red wine, sherry, apple cider)

Salt and pepper

Directions:

Grate the beets on the large holes of a box grater. You might do this in the sink to prevent splattering your counter with pink juice, or use a food processor.

Sprinkle the minced garlic with the salt (on a cutting board) and use the side of a chef’s knife to press down and pull the blade towards you, repeat, scraping and piling up the garlic and salt and pressing and pulling with the knifed blade, until you have a coarse paste.  You can also skip this step and just use the minced garlic as is. The paste just integrates and dissolves in the beets nicely.

Put the grated beets in a bowl and add the garlic, salt, olive oil and lemon juice. Stir well an let rest for 15 minutes. You can store the beets like this in a well-sealed container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

Put the farro (warm, room temp or cold) in a salad bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and the marinated beets. Toss everything together gently and taste and adjust seasoning with more salt and/or lemon juice or vinegar