Beetroot Relish

March 1, 2019

There is truly no reason why plant based food cannot be wonderful, tasty and healthy. As chefs, being sustainable and continuing to cook for the increasing population of the world is our responsibility. More and more, the future is looking like a plant-based one. That doesn’t mean we have to completely give up meat or change our style of cooking, just changing the ingredients sometimes. The techniques are still the same. To get you started we have delicious Beetroot Relish recipe that you need to try. It’s absolutely delicious!

This is my sous vide version of a great recipe by highly regarded Australian chef and award-winning food writer Christine Manfield. Don’t be afraid to make a good batch of relish—beetroot cooked this way is very moreish and goes with everything.

Note: The ginger in this dish will take over if you add too much, so be a little reserved.

Time: 1 hour 15 minutes, includes 1 hour cooking time. Makes 1 cup

 1 beetroot

small knob of fresh ginger

1 garlic clove

2 teaspoons brown sugar

salt

30ml cider vinegar

. teaspoon fennel seeds

. teaspoon black peppercorns

1 clove

1 bird’s-eye chilli, split open

Preheat water bath to 85⁰C

Peel and grate the beetroot and ginger, and thinly slice the garlic on a mandoline.

Place beetroot, ginger and garlic in a vacuum pouch with the brown sugar, a generous pinch

of salt and the cider vinegar. Wrap the fennel seeds, black peppercorns, clove and the chilli

in a piece of baking paper, then add this to the vacuum pouch and vacuum-seal on high.

Cook in the preheated water bath for 2 hours.

For a thicker relish, the juice from the vacuum pouch can be reduced by half in a small saucepan

over moderate heat, then the spices discarded, and the grated beetroot stirred back in.

Variations: This recipe works just as well with whole beetroot peeled and washed as it does with wedges and slices.

There is no need to adjust the recipe irrespective of the shape or variety of the beetroot.