Yesterday when I came back from Nafplion, I read a message from Rachael, a friend I have made through Facebook, who lives in Paphos, Cyprus. Rachael told me that she made Pantzaria xydata (the beetroot preserves from my cookbook) and I wish to thank her for her kind words.
I remembered that I have a few recipes I have made with the beetroot preserves and never posted, so this post will give a few ideas to Rachael and to all of you who have bought the cookbook, how to make good use of them. I take this opportunity to thank you all for buying the cookbook and keep coming back for more ideas.
The salad is a tweak to “pantzarosalata”, a beetroot salad my mother would always make whenever we had fish and it is one of my favourites. I served it as a side dish to Bakaliaros (battered cod) and a potato Skordalia.
Note: If you do not have beetroot preserves, you can added boiled or roasted beetroots plus some vinegar.
I used agourelaio, which is the top Greek extra virgin olive oil, produced from the first picked olives which have not yet ripen but you can used any kind of Extra virgin olive oil.
Beetroot Yoghurt Salad, recipe by Ivy
Ingredients:
1 chopped preserved beetroot
2 hard boiled eggs
1 boiled potato
½ cup fresh cilantro (fresh coriander)
150 ml Greek strained yoghurt
2 tbsp agourelaio or extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
Cut all the ingredients in a bowl.
In a food processor add the yoghurt, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and mix.
Add this mixture to the remaining ingredients and mix.
Refrigerate for half an hour before serving.
I made the pita chips and forgot to take a picture when they were baked but these are perfect to serve with any kind of dip.
Pita Chips
Cypriot Pita Bread
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Garlic, finely chopped
Lemon Juice
Oregano
Salt and pepper
Directions
Cut the pita bread into triangles. Brush wih the olive oil mixture and bake in a preheated oven until crispy.
Look at the wonderful colour of this dip and the taste is amazing! This dip is based on a beetroot salad made here in Greece, usually made with boiled beetroots, cut into small cubes, garlic, yoghurt and olive oil, similar to the one I posted today on Kopiaste, with walnuts. However, this was made into a dip, using preserved beets, which of course have vinegar, added feta, which makes it extra creamy and agourelaio, with its fruity almost bitter taste, which brought this dip to another level.
Beetroot Yoghurt Dip, recipe adapted by Ivy
Ingredients:
1 cup chopped preserved beetroots
200 ml Greek strained yoghurt
100 grams Greek feta
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
Put all the ingredients in a food processor and mix.
Refrigerate for half an hour before serving with pita chips.
The recipes mentioned in this post: Bakaliaros (cod), skordalia, pantzaria xydata (preserved beets, as well as making pita bread from scratch, are all included in my cookbook.
I am linking these recipes to my event Creative Concoctions: Cooking with Olive Oil.
If you want to win some Greek Extra virgin olive oil, all you have to do is post a recipe you have tweaked, until the 25th May, using olive oil.
Kopiaste and Kali Orexi,
Order your copy now!