A new video on Utube. I cooked another favourite dish – starring Mr. Beetroot. I love beetroot – we all should love beets. Not just cause its freakin healthy and super delicious – but also looking phenomenal with its pinky, yellowy and candy-colors!!! Gorgeous looking indeed. And sooooo easy to cook, pickle, roast … nom nom.

The dish i cooked now has already been gone through plenty of transformations. Main ingredients is the de-hydrated beetroot. Its amazing. Amazing to eat. The texture become like beef jerky. Insane. Luve it. How u make it? Yes, it needs a bit of a thinking ahead – it needs 2 hours at 80 degrees in normal oven with fan (or slower overnight in dehydrator around 60 degrees). But if u do u can do a lot and it keeps fine in the fridge for about a week. The point is not to dehydrate fully – just like around 70-80%. That is the texture what we are looking for. We will re-hydrate a little bit anyway while we are cooking it again in any kind of liquid. Thats it. Easy eeeeeasy – no atom physics required.

So the beetroot originally has been served with torched mackerel and jerk yoghurt. Flavours working amazingly together – the fattyness of the fish and the freshness of the yoghurt balanced out the acidity of the beetroot and its vinegary dressing meanwhile the jerk spice gave the cheeky kick from the back u were not expecting. Big big favourite of mine. Try and u will see.

Then Mr. Beets got a garnish role when it was drawning in jus and pommegranate molasses. That definitely did the trick – was served with pinky juicy duck breast on the side.

After i decided to lift up the role of beetroot as a vegetable. Mr. Pinky is able to stand up for itself as a strong individual ‘main ingredient’ so it doesnt need to be only a garnish…

I started to playing with the textures and flavoures – and created a vegan dish using sweet cooked and dehydrated beets, dressed with mushroom jus and pomm molasses served with hazelnut ‘ajo blanco’, mushroom and hazelnut crumb with jerk and fresh pommegranate. Nom nom. Nom NOm NOM. Was delissssssh. Very very happy.

With this dish im cooking in the video now i skip the mushroom part and using sweet caramelized shallots and crispy kalettes – only because this is what i had in hand and the dish is working spot on.

Not much left to explain… so i had ‘fresh’ cooked beetroot in hand – yes i did buy it from a supermarket. I dont like buying pre-cooked things at all – but beetroot i think is the only exception. I personally dont find any difference in flavour and i save like one hour time in my life. So its really an express solution for quick salads mainly – i still prefer buying a bunch of beets with its green and dirt on -if i find it necessary. Not this case. However thanks to @GreenPig i had some gorgeous crunchy pickled pinky infused with thyme and garlic made from scratch. And i had my de-hydrated ‘granpa’ looking sweet beet on hand of course.

I did the same thing with the kalettes what i love to do with kale – just grease it up and roast in the oven. They tiny so they ready pretty quick (less then 20 i guess). Just marinate them with jerk fat – i was using coconut oil but any fat will do the job, butter, oil…

Shallots – like i always prepare. Cut half, black the inside and finish with couple of minutes steam/roast. Eaaaaasy. Sweet.

Hazelnut puree? I was going to make ‘ajo blanco’ but i didnt. So i ended up just cooking hazelnut in oat milk (1:2 ratio), season with salt, pepper and vinegar and blend the thing. Always start blending with less liquid so u can add more if u need – but its very hard (impossible) to take out if its too runny. Apologies for my puree – but my home blender died so i had to prep this in the job and there the blender is…. hmmm not the best. So forgive me (as it was still freakin delicious).

That is it. The dish is done. And its delightful.

I always have this worry about… should i say its vegan or should not? Because… more people eating less meat and fish nowadays – which is meant to be great for the environment – but also the people who do eat meat start to have this ‘refusing behaviour’ against ‘vegan’ things. Basically it doesnt matter if it tastes like heaven – they wont touch cause its ‘vegan’.

Me myself and i… considering myself as a very weak vegetarian who eat seastuff sometimes and very very rarely meat. I still find lots of joy in vegan food – the pure plant based nature is amazing. I find more excitement brainstorming above a piece of organic leek than a chicken breast. I find more challenging making things absolutely delicious without using animal products.

I do love cheese (however im pretty happy with my vegan nut blocks experiment) and there are things what needs to be fried in butter or icecream is not real without yolks… but these are small bits. Im trying to give back to the nature as much as i take out.

So my point was its a vegan dish. And it is possible to make spot on vegan food what looks and taste divine. Of course u can throw some duck ham on the side – it wont make it worse or u can eat cranberry-sausage with it. U will enjoy. Just like how it is right now. Try and u see. Enjoy.