You know how I said I was the most forgetful person in the world. Well, I wasn’t kidding! There is a bit of a family history with the Kellys that when it comes to cooking, we seem to lose our minds. Whether it’s forgetting about the nuts that are toasting, forgetting a vital ingredient and making a second, or sometimes even third trip to the supermarket, or even finishing a lovely meal, when taking plates to the kitchen and someone yells out, “hey, what were these almonds for?”, we are just hopeless!

So, my heirloom beet night was no exception. In fact, that night was a double dose of doozy. I already had two different coloured beets, was going to mix it with a classic vinegarette and creamy goats cheese and wanted just to take it that one step further, give it a slight edge. Crispy beetroot chips and warm toasted hazelnuts for texture and crunch. Well in true Kelly form, I made two of the aforementioned mistakes. I forgot to put the beetroot chips on the plate for photographing, AND I forgot to buy the hazelnuts all together. Had I gone back to the supermarket for the nuts, then burnt them while toasting them, I would have really out done myself.

So, from personal experience I can confirm that the salad was just lovely without the hazelnuts, but I still would recommend adding them. And while the beet chips didn’t make it in the photo, they did make it in our bellies and this is a must. Hope you enjoy and it all makes it on your plate.

Serves 4

1 bunch purple beetroots (about 4 or 5 bulbs)
1 bunch yellow beetroots (about 4 or 5 bulbs)
1 bag beetroot chips, or you can finely slice one of the beets and fry them up yourself
100g goats cheese
Handful of hazelnuts, toasted
Micro salad greens or micro herbs

Dressing
2 tbs oil, neutral oil, I use rice bran
1 tbs white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper

First prepare your beets. Now there are a number of ways you can do this but my recommendation would be to  roast, or cook in a microwave steamer with only a little bit of water. A lot of recipes call for cutting them and then boiling them, I don’t like to do this, you lose flavour and nutrition. So if you want to roast, wrap whole beets, individually in foil and roast until you can skewer them easily. If doing in a microwave steamer basket place them in whole, in two lots, one purple, one yellow with a couple of tablespoons of water and steam until cooked and a skewer goes through easily. Reserving one beet for chips if making your own. Once cooked, set aside to cool.

To make your dressing, please all ingredients in a jar. Shake well to combine and then leave to sit until required.

If you are making your own beet chips, slice up the raw reserved beetroots into fine disks. Shallow fry in about a 1cm of hot oil, about 20 seconds on each side until crisp. Drain on paper towel.

Once the beets are cool, slice one into disks for the bottom of the platter and the others into random chunks or quarters, or halves if you have any tiny ones.

Arrange cooked and fried beets on your plate, sprinkle with hazelnuts, crumble with goats cheese, add your micro salad leaves and drizzle with dressing. Another really easy, really delicious salad. And try not to forget anything.