Beetroot Bonanza Part 1 - Baby Beet Tart Tatin

A combination of receiving the River Cottage Veg book for Christmas and the recent research showing that athletes perform better after eating beetroot, made me think I should perhaps try something beyond pickled beetroot.

Baby Beet Tart Tatin

This is a savory version of the traditional apple tart tatin but with caramelized beets and served with a shallot vinaigrette. 

I used ready made puff pastry.  I like to think I've achieved a fair few things in my life put the art of pastry making had eluded me. I fully admit that I can't make decent pastry and I also tend to create a beastly mess so it's better all round to buy the ready-made, pre-rolled stuff.

I couldn't find any baby beets so I just cut up some adult ones :-)

The beetroot seemed to take forever to roast...at least an hour, and not the 30-40 minutes stated in the book. Luckily I had planned ahead and roasted some additional beets for tomorrows soup so that helped my electricity bill a little bit.

It's a pretty straight forward recipe (if you don't have to faff about making your own pastry) but is quite time consuming... it took me almost two hours in total so not an ideal mid-week dinner.

This recipe turned out really well for me. The beetroots are sweet and tasty and the vinaigrette really adds a nice contrast of flavour. I for added protein, I crumbed feta cheese on top and served it with a puy lentil salad.

My only grumble would be that the portion sizes are a bit on the tight side. The recipe is supposed to serve 4 but between myself and the two children there was only just enough.

Next time I would use more beetroot and cook it in my lasagna dish to make a larger sized tart.

Overall, a big thumbs up to Mr. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall!

So what are the other benefits of eating beetroot?

Beetroot is a powerhouse of nutrition, containing  iron, potassium, magnesium, vitamins A, B6 and C, and folic acid as well as protein and fibre.

 

As well as increasing physical performance, beetroot has been shown to reduce blood pressure (and the associated risk of heart attacks & strokes), reduce cholesterol and help slow the progression of dementia.

The kids find that it has the added bonus of turning your wee pink and your poo red.

And when it can taste this good, it does make you wonder why we don't incorporate it into our diets more often.

You can read more about beautiful beets at www.lovebeetroot.co.uk

More beetroot recipes can be found in the book: