Fresh Beet Salad with Smoked Bacon Bits

Ingredients

1 box of The Vegetarian Butcher Smoked Bacon Bits
4 fresh red beetroots (you can also use precooked beetroot)
2 cooking apples, peeled and cut into thin wedges
1 red onion, in rings
4 handfuls of lamb’s lettuce
4 tbsp pine nuts, dry roasted
oil (for frying)

For the dressing:

3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar
a little lemon juice
1 tsp maple syrup
1 tsp mustard
salt and pepper

This salad will look even more amazing and delicious if you use Chioggia beetroots. They come in a wide variety of colours ranging from white, pink and yellow to red.

Roasting the beetroot is really quite simple and brings out a lot of flavour. However, you can also use boiled beetroot for this dish, it’s just a s good.

Preparation

If you’re using fresh beetroot, scrub them under running water and wrap each beetroot individually in aluminium foil. And put them in a preheated oven (200°C) for about an hour. When you remove the beetroots from the oven the should be soft and the skin should peel off easily. If you’re using precooked beetroot you can skip this step.

Next, thinly slice the beetroot and prepare the dressing by putting all the ingredients in a bowl and gradually stirring in the oil to create a smooth emulsion.

Divide the beetroot slices over 4 plates and top with a handful of lamb’s lettuce on each plate. On top of that, add the apple and red onion a sprinkle with pine nuts and the dressing.

Finally, fry the Smoked Bacon Bits in some oil until crunchy and add to the salad. This is a great meal on its own with some toast or a great BBQ side dish.