Borscht Salad

The market has an abundance of beautiful bunches of beets at the moment and they are one of my favourites. My son on the other hand hates beets so he will be having leftovers tonight! I often roast beets to toss into any quick salad I happen to be making but today I thought I would use Borscht as my inspiration. Really I should just make Borscht as I've never had it before, but I'm really not in the mood for all that cooking and with the never ending rain and no gym membership, I don't need a soup thickened with mashed potato right now either, if you know what I mean! Thank goodness for sweatpants:)
I'm basing my salad on a typical Ukrainian version of Borscht although substituting sprouted black beans as my starch in favour of potato. Other than that most of the rest of the ingredients are the same, beets, cabbage, carrots, onion, tomato and a dill vinaigrette. All topped off with a soft boiled egg.

Recipe
 
Borcht Salad
serves 4

2 medium beets
1 large carrot
1/4 medium red cabbage
2 spring onions
1 large tomato
4 eggs, at room temperature

Dill Vinaigrette adapted from Food Network recipe by Bobby Flay

    2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
    1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
    1 tablespoon minced shallot
    2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
    1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
    1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
    1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
 
Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Trim beets then wrap in foil and roast in the oven for approximately 1 hour or until tender. Remove from oven and allow to cool before peeling.
 
Combine all the vinaigrette ingredients in a food processor and process until blended. Set aside.
 
Shred the cabbage thinly. Julienne the beets, carrots and spring onions. Chop the tomato into bite sized pieces. Pour half the dressing over the vegetables and leave, covered, to sit for up to an hour. This will help to soften the veg and mellow the taste of the cabbage.
 
Put a pan of water on to boil. When boiling, gently lower the eggs on a spoon into the pan and simmer for 7 minutes. Remove the eggs when done and place in iced water to stop the cooking process. Peel the eggs.
 
Serve the salad on mashed sprouted black beans, cooked quinoa or couscous with a sliced in half boiled egg on top and the remainder of the dressing drizzled on and around the salad.

I found I had a fair amount of dressing left, which I think would make a great dressing for pasta. By the way, if this is your first time trying beets you should know that for some people they have an effect on your pee! It can be from light pink to bright red in colour, especially when you eat the leaves too. Don't be alarmed!

 Smačnoho! (as they say in Ukraine)