Beetroot, have we met before?

Beetroot Kebabs with Spiced Yogurt and crunchy Dukkah

Have you ever tried food for the first time and found the flavour to be oddly familiar?

You know that kind of feeling as though your paths have crossed but your palate has zero memory of the when, where or how.

This is me with a plethora of flavours - and counting.

The taste is peculiarly familiar yet this is our first encounter.

I discussed this very subject with a friend of mine the other day who it turns out, shares the exact same experience. As our conversation unfolded, we found we share one commonality. We are both third generation immigrants. Both of us having very little connection with the countries our grandparents left, or travelled through to reach their final destination here in the UK. There is a lot of undiscovered pieces to our family jigsaw. But the one piece we both cling on to is flavour.

Flavours we have not yet experienced - or have we?

Okay, call me crazy, but I have this theory.

What if these unfamiliar flavours (yet oh so familiar) were in fact everyday flavours consumed by our grandmothers? Could these flavours have been passed on to us, lying dormant in our microbiome waiting to be woken? This I have yet to proven scientifically, but for now I think it’s pretty profound, right?

Take the humble beetroot.

I came to these earthy, ruby red root vegetables a little late in life, Simply because I remember my younger self thinking beetroots smelt akin to mud - and let’s be honest, nobody wants to eat the soil they walk on. It was never a vegetable brought to the family table yet fast forward some 30 or so years later and I have learnt not to be afraid of that delicious earthy taste. Because when combined with their natural sweetness, beetroot’s are really quite special.

And as it turns out my late maternal grandmother did too. No surprise having been born and raised in Baku (then a Russian city) for the first decade of her life, beetroot was deeply ingrained in her veins. She never spoke of her painful primitive life, but according to my Mum, she served up snippets on a plate. Borscht being a regular feature in her household when growing up. She tells me with a slightly grimaced look, although clearly not too off-putting as to do this day she lovingly slices cooked beetroot on her salad, despite it staining her hands for the next week.

Perhaps this explains why a little fire is lit deep within my belly whenever I consume the humble beet. That flavour recognisable yet not a part of my own food foundations. Something so very warm and familiar - even if it did take me 30 years to reconnect with it.

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Beetroot Kebabs with Spiced Yogurt and crunchy Dukkah

I saw a bunch of beetroots at our local Friday Farmers Market and got a little too excited. Fresh back from holiday, I felt like a kid in a candy shop picking from a myriad of late summer goodies. Still in holiday mode, I had my sights on grilling fine slices of beetroot threaded on a stick over embers. I could taste the delicious smoke dancing with sweet, earthy flavours on my tongue. As it turns out, I didn’t get round to lighting the barbecue, but they turned out just as well on the grill.

In this recipe the grilled beetroot kebabs are placed on a bed of delicious zesty spiced yogurt with a sprinkling of crunchy hazelnuts, coriander seeds and black sesame seeds. The floral notes from the coriander seed take this plate to whole new level. You will note I have omitted the usual cumin seeds from my dukkah mix because quite simply put I am not a fan (despite trying numerous times). Instead I replace them with some wonderfully fruity Aleppo chilli flakes because let’s face it, cooking is all about enjoying the food on your plate, and this I did.

When preparing this dish you are best placed to use a pair of gloves to save your hands from looking like they’ve been involved in a massacre for the next week. I use my marigolds just as my Nanna would, although those gloves handed out freely at the petrol pump will do the job just as well.

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Beetroot Kebabs

1 large Beetroot

Sea Salt Flakes, pinch

Black Pepper, pinch

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Spiced Yogurt

250g Plain Yogurt (I like to use Coconut Collaborative Coconut yogurt)

1/2 Lemon, juice and zest

1 tsp Paprika

Dukkah

50g Hazelnuts

2 tsp Sesame Seeds

1 tsp Coriander Seeds

Aleppo Chilli Flakes, pinch

To Serve

Fresh Mint Leaves

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

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Take one large beetroot, scrub and trim. Cut the beet in half and finely slice using the thinest mandolin setting. Place the slices in a bowl and season generously with salt and pepper and drizzle with oil. Mix with your gloved hand and thread on to a skewer or two, loosely folding the slices to mirror an authentic kebab look.

Set the grill to high and get started on your yogurt. Place half a pot of yogurt  in a mixing bowl, along with the juice of half a lemon, some freshly grated zest, one teaspoon of paprika, a pinch of salt and a good drizzled of extra virgin olive oil. Stir to combine and set to one side.

Now on to your cumin-less dukkah. Place a handful of hazelnuts on a dry frying pan and set the heat to low. Gently toast the hazelnuts being sure to toss every so often so as not to burn. Remove from the heat and place in a mortar and pestle along with two teaspoons of sesame seeds, one teaspoon of coriander seeds and a pinch of Aleppo chilli flakes.

Place the skewers under a grill set to high - or on top of some burning embers. Leave to brown before turning every few minutes. If like me you get distracted, turn them as soon as you begin to smell the crisp almost burnt like aroma. Trust me, these bits are the best so do let them burn a little.

Remove from the grill and set to one side whilst you build your plate. First, place a generous dollop of spiced yogurt on your serving platter and smooth around the base being sure to spread it. Take the beetroot kebabs and carefully remove the skewer whilst placing the tender slices on the yogurt base. Finish with a generous sprinkling of dukkah, some fresh mint leaves and a little final drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Serve immediately with a charred flatbread watching the yogurt turn a wonderfully red hue.

Charred Beetroot, fresh from the grill

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