Beeeeeeets!

[Disclaimer: this post is being written while under the influence of half a bottle of fine Bordeaux. Château de la Rivière, Fronsac 2004 to be exact. Don't ask me what I'm doing drinking this on a Monday night. It just happened. Honest. Le BIB just wasn't cutting it at the end of this first day back to work after a week's vacation.]

I friggin' love beets. They're like nature's candy that always has the last laugh, making you think you're going into massive kidney failure a few hours after eating them... Hypochondriac much? I digress. Back to beets.

I used to hate beets. I'd only known them to be little red balls of vinegary discomfort before I had them again in my early twenties, during my one year stint at chef school (fifteen pounds gained in one semester - oy!) The beets had been boiled from fresh and simply served hot with butter, salt and pepper. It was a revelation - they weren't gross after all! In fact, they were downright delicious. I was saved.

A few years later, I met Diane, Marc's stepmom, who took beets to a whole new level by making them the star of a tremendously simple salad. It was just so easy! And delicious. I made it yesterday for lunch with some tomato and basil egg-salad sandwiches. I just think it's a great way to dispose of a good amount of beets when you've gotten a ton in your weekly basket or the harvest in your own garden has turned out better than you could have imagined... Here's the recipe, with snaps to Diane for inspiration.

Diane's Beet Salad

Just toss the following together, or just layer:

• Cooked beets (boiled or roasted - whatever floats your boat), sliced, as many as you need to feed the people you have to feed
• Celery (approx. one stalk per three or four tennis ball-sized beets), light green parts only, chopped into a fine dice big enough to provide crunch but so not so big that it might give an overwhelming celeriness to a bite of salad
• Green onion, white and light green parts only, very thinly sliced, amount depending on how many beets you have (again, I'd use one green onion per three or four tennis ball-sized beets)
• Fresh Mint, Basil, Parsley or Dill, finely chopped, in quantities sufficient to give this salad a distinguishable herbiness
• Fresh juice of one Lemon (you may need more - keep tasting until your tongue tells you Ayyyy!)
• A good sprinkling of roasted / toasted nut oil such as sesame, walnut or hazelnut - again, put enough on to impart some nutty flavour and fragrance
• Olive oil to play supporting actor to the nut oil ('cause that stuff's too expensive to use in big quantities), enough to coat whatever the nut oil and lemon juice haven't coated
• Salt and pepper to taste

If you want, you could also choose to omit the celery and just throw on some walnuts, cold cooked asparagus and crumbled goat cheese with a few leaves of baby spinach instead. Eat that with a bit of baguette, and you've got yourself a sensible weeknight meal!

I hope you enjoy this recipe, although it may be a bit late to try it tonight... Okay... I'm off to bed now. I'll talk to you guys again soon. Nighty night.