Beetroot is a sweet, colourful, earthy vegetable-closely related to mother earth and healthy too.I particularly love it raw as a salad ingredient. I’ve only recently been experimenting with beetroot recipes, as my husband doesn’t much prefer to see the veggie in his plate in a raw form.
Surprisingly, beetroot in its raw state doesn’t seem to bleed as much as when it’s cooked. Unless you want the red dye to run into the other ingredients, they are best kept separated and added just before eating. However, for terrific beetroot recipes you can try cooked baby beets.
Mr. Cabbage got to play a role in this recipe mainly because I wanted to ease off the too much red look of the dish and also I just had a few left over leaves of cabbage, too less to use for a separate dish. The combination worked out well and I served it in a different style rather than the monotonous roti with the side dish in a katori (bowl). To top it all, it felt good that, I didn’t have to be an accomplished restaurant chef armed with special tools and squeeze bottles containing colourful sauces to enhance the appearance of the food I prepared. Just a few basic instincts and principles of plate presentation, with a little practice of course, made the dish appear very tempting and appetizing. So, as they say ‘the more eye-appealing the food, the better it tastes’.
Go on and use your tricks too, with a little art and practice, to make your special dish eye-appealing and tummy teasing!
Ingredients:
- 4 medium sized beetroots (grated)
- 3 leaves of cabbage (finely shredded)
For the seasoning:
- 1 tsp oil
- ¼ tsp mustard seeds
- 1 Red chilli or ½ tsp Pepper powder –for spice
- Salt to taste
- Few curry leaves
Method:
- Heat oil in a pan, when hot adds mustard seeds and whole red chilli/pepper powder.
- When it splutters add curry leaves, followed by grated beetroot and salt.
- Close and let it cook in its own water content.
- After two minutes, open lid and stir well.
- Now add grated/shredded cabbage over it (do no stir).
- Close lid, put off the flame and allow it to cook for two minutes in the existing heat.
- Serve hot as side dish for rice or rotis.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Serves: 4