Beetroot and grape carpaccio with radish, sorrel and orange

Another amazingly versatile vegetable with a really long growing season – beetroot is sweet and earthy and I think I love it the most in June when it’s at its most tender and delicious… Those sweet thin skinned baby early summer ones are the vision and taste of my childhood – but then my parents are the real life Tom and Barbara from The Good Life so I feel that way about a lot of vegetables!

However, beetroot is a rare vegetable that speaks of summer and Christmas to me all at once. It’s a real all rounder and I also really love to eat it in the autumn and into winter – it feels quite festive and it has a robust taste that can hold its own with lots of other strong flavours – which means it can be used in a variety of ways and marries well with a variety of things from sharp, fruity, creamy, rich, nutty and pungent.

It’s unique earthiness and sweetness means it works really well in both savoury and sweet dishes and pairs well with anything from chocolate to salmon! Combinations I really like and are worth trying are:

• Goats cheese and walnut
• Blood orange and burrata
• Dark chocolate and pistachio
• Parmesan and rocket
• Horseradish and yogurt
• Balsamic and thyme
• Mustard and tarragon
• Garlic and rosemary
• Dill and capers

Roasted – in foil with woody herbs, garlic and balsamic

Boiled – whole so they don’t loose their colour and tossed into butter and soft herbs

Baked into cakes – most famously with dark chocolate

Juiced – excellent with apple, ginger and turmeric (liver cleansing)

Pickling and curing – in the classic pickle and used to add sweetness and colour to cure salmon with gin

Raw grated and thinly sliced into carpaccio – textural and crunchy with a freshness that matches well with citrus and zesty flavours

Beware colour transfer – the deep purple/red is lovely but can bleed so just think about that when cooking/preparing it; marinate separately to keep the colours intact, don’t peel or cut the root if boiling as the colour will be lost in the water (the skins slip off easily once cooked), equally roast whole wrapped in foil where possible to retain their colour and always roast separately to other veg as the colour will stain anything it shares a pan with

Mixed beetroots if you can get hold of them – yellow, white, choggia (candy stripe) and red

Black or red grapes

Radishes

Baby sorrel leaves

Tarragon leaves

Orange zest

Balsamic vinegar

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper