Monday, March 24, 2008

Beet Salad for Easter -- Made Fast in the Pressure Cooker


Last Friday I took a trip to Tierra Vegetables farmstand to get beets but I actually only bought 1 beet. They grow Lutz, a large sugarbeet. My one beet was over 2 pounds. And I was really excited about cooking it. I just had a craving for beets and knew that anyone who really likes them would be thrilled, especially paired with bitter greens.

Luckily at our Easter dinner there were at least 3 of us, one of them my sister-in-law who is from England. She said that she doesn't cook fresh beets. Huh? Maybe if she knew that they would cook in about 10 minutes in the pressure cooker, she would do it.

Here's the recipe which comes from my cookbook The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment which is available on my website http://www.theveggiequeen.com/.

Orange Scented Beet Salad
Makes 4 1 cup servings of beets plus ½ cup greens
3 minutes high pressure; 7 minute natural pressure release
Cooking beets has never been easier. They become so tender that you don’t even need to peel them.

1 ½ pounds beets, about 6 med.
½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
3 large slices orange zest
2 tablespoons agave nectar, Sucanat or brown sugar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons orange zest
2 green onions, sliced
2 cups spicy greens like arugula, mustard or a mix, washed and dried

Scrub beets. Remove tops, stems and tails and cut in half. Then cut into ¼-inch slices.
Put the orange juice, vinegar and the large slices of orange zest into the cooker. Add the beet slices. Lock on the lid. Bring the pressure to high over high heat. Reduce the heat to maintain high pressure for 3 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat. Let the pressure come down naturally for 7 minutes, then release any remaining pressure. Test beets to be sure that they are cooked through. If not, bring back to pressure for another 2 minutes, and let come down naturally. Test again.

Remove the lid, tilting it away from you. Remove the large pieces of orange zest. Stir in the brown sugar and mustard.

Remove the beets from the cooking liquid and let cool for 5 minutes. Mix the orange zest and green onions with the beets. Pour the liquid from the cooker over the beets. Spoon ¼ of the mixture onto ½ cup of spicy greens on individual salad plates. Or you may chill the beets, without the zest and green onions, and let sit in the liquid for a day or two. Right before serving stir in the orange zest and green onions.

©2007 from The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment, Jill Nussinow, MS, RD

2 comments:

Lis said...

Thank you so much for participating, Jill. This salad looks amazingly good - we love beets!

I've never cooked one in a pressure cooker and to be honest, I can't wait to try!

Wonderful recipe, thanks again! :)

xoxo

The Veggie Queen said...

Thank you for hosting the challenge.

I hope that you enjoy cooking beets in the pressure cooker as much as I do.

Jill