Beetroot And Feta Salad Recipe
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves: 6 as a side dish
Ingredients Needed
- 500g/1.1lb beetroot, roasted
- 100g/3.5oz Greek fetta
- 1/4 red onion sliced
- A few mint leaves
- Salt and black pepper
For Caramelised Pecans
- 50g/1.7ozs pecan pieces (break up or chop up into small pieces)
- 15g/0.5oz caster or superfine sugar
- 1 teaspoon/5g/0.17oz butter
For Orange Gel
- 100g/3.5 fl oz orange juice
- 1g/0.03oz (around 3/8 teaspoon) agar agar
- 20g/0.7 oz caster or superfine sugar
Croutons
- 12 thin slices of rustic white baguette
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- Salt
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 NUTS - Line a baking tray with parchment. Place a non stick pan on medium heat and add the sugar and butter and stir. When the butter has melted add the pecans and stir to coat the nuts with the sugar constantly turning them and coating them. When the sugar has caramelised and the nuts are coated, scoop the nuts onto the parchment lined tray and separate using the spatula. When they cool they'll harden up to become crunchy. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
Step 2 ORANGE GEL - Whisk the orange juice, agar agar and sugar together. Heat on medium heat in a saucepan and when it starts boiling, remove it from the heat. Pour into a bowl and refrigerate or leave at room temperature to set. Place in a blender and process or use an immersion blender to liquify. The gel should become a glossy, pipeable consistency. Store in the fridge.
Step 3 CROUTONS - Turn the baguette bottom side up and slice the baguette very thinly. Toast in a grill set to medium until lightly golden. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
Step 4 ASSEMBLE - Cut beetroot into bite sized wedges and arrange on a serving plate. Add red onion slices and then crumble feta on top and distribute evenly. Then place the orange gel in a piping bag (a ziplock bag with a hole in a corner snipped also works) and pipe dabs of gel all over the beetroot. Sprinkle with caramelised pecans, place croutons and finish with some mint or dill. Drizzle with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper.
Personal Note
A lot of people are talking about the march of AI and as a recipe developer I must say that I am very, very concerned about it. I hate that that they can just take your recipe and rip it off and there is no recourse or compensation. It feels like being robbed.
Having said that I hadn't actually tried an AI recipe until this. I was testing out this beetroot feta salad and decided to make the orange gel. I decided to use the recipe provided by google's Gemini just to test it out as it just needed three ingredients: agar, orange juice and sugar and took less than 5 minutes active cooking time.
I made it according to Gemini's directions and it was a fail. The gemini recipe specified double the amount of agar than needed and instead of a silky gel, I got a hard jelly that was impossible to blend up. I ended up finding one on youtube by Chef Miller that worked better and was made by a real human!
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried an AI recipe and how did it go?