Salt-Baked Beetroot with Whipped Yoghurt and Charred Orange

Baking beetroot in a crust of coarse salt is one of the simplest ways to cook it, and one of the best. The salt seals the beetroot in, so it steams gently in its own juices and comes out dense, sweet and deeply earthy, without the wateriness you can get from boiling. Served warm on cool, garlicky whipped yoghurt with charred orange and toasted pine nuts, it makes a vivid starter for an autumn or winter dinner.

The crust does the cooking rather than the seasoning: with the skins left on, the beetroot picks up only a gentle hint of salt, so the real seasoning happens at the end. That is where a good mill earns its place. Finely milled salt melts into the yoghurt and dressing, while a coarse crack of black pepper over the finished plate gives little bursts of heat and aroma against the sweetness. With a fully adjustable grind, like the one on The Purple Mill (fitting, given the colour of the dish), you can switch from fine to coarse in a few turns.

One practical tip: crack the pepper over the plate just before it goes to the table. Freshly ground pepper loses its aroma quickly, and on a dish this simple you will taste the difference.

Serves: 4 as a starter · Prep time: 20 minutes · Cook time: 1 hour 30 minutes · Total time: 1 hour 50 minutes

Ingredients

• 4 medium beetroot (about 600 g in total), scrubbed, skins on
• 600 g coarse sea salt, for the crust
• 2 large egg whites
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 300 g full-fat Greek yoghurt
• 1 small garlic clove, finely grated
• 2 oranges
• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp runny honey
• 30 g pine nuts
• ½ tsp fine sea salt, freshly milled
• 1 tsp black peppercorns, coarsely cracked, plus a pinch finely ground for the dressing
• 1 tsp flaky sea salt, to finish
• A small handful of micro herbs or watercress, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan). Trim the beetroot leaves, leaving about 2 cm of stalk and the root intact so the juices stay in. Scrub well but do not peel.
2. In a bowl, mix the coarse sea salt with the egg whites and the leaves from 2 thyme sprigs until it feels like damp sand. Spread about a third over the base of a small roasting dish, sit the beetroot on top with the remaining thyme sprigs, then pack the rest of the salt mixture around and over them so they are completely sealed.
3. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes (up to 1 hour 30 minutes for larger beetroot). Push a skewer through the crust into the largest one: it should slide in easily. Leave to rest in the crust for 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan over a medium heat for 2–3 minutes, shaking often, until golden. Tip onto a plate.
5. Finely zest one orange into a bowl, then halve it, squeeze out the juice and set the juice aside. Add the yoghurt, garlic, ¼ tsp of the fine salt and 1 tbsp of the olive oil to the zest and beat for a minute until smooth and slightly airy. Chill until needed.
6. Cut the peel and white pith from the second orange and slice it into 1 cm rounds. Heat a griddle or heavy frying pan over a high heat until very hot, then char the orange slices for 1–2 minutes per side, without oil, until blackened in patches.
7. For the dressing, whisk 3 tbsp of the reserved orange juice with the vinegar, honey, the remaining 3 tbsp olive oil, the remaining ¼ tsp fine salt and a pinch of finely ground black pepper.
8. Crack open the salt crust with the back of a heavy spoon and lift out the beetroot, brushing off any salt. When cool enough to handle (gloves stop your hands staining), rub off the skins and cut each beetroot into wedges. Toss with half the dressing while still warm.
9. Spread the whipped yoghurt over a platter or four plates. Arrange the beetroot and charred orange on top, scatter over the pine nuts and spoon over the rest of the dressing. Finish with the flaky salt, the coarsely cracked black pepper and the micro herbs, and serve straight away.

Seasoning notes

Taste a wedge of beetroot before adding the flaky salt: with the skins on it takes very little salt from the crust, but it is worth checking. Use fine salt where you want it to dissolve (the yoghurt and dressing) and flaky salt and coarse pepper where you want texture on top. The crust salt is for cooking only, so discard it afterwards. Keeping both mills side by side on a Double Mill Rest means the finishing touches are always within reach.

For dishes finished at the table like this one, a salt and pepper pairing makes life easy. The Mixed Set lets you choose a different colour for each mill; both are designed by a former Rolls-Royce engineer, with no plastic parts and a fully adjustable grind.

Photo: Vitalii Kyktov / Unsplash