Bietensalade (Dutch Beetroot Salad)

In my grandmother's second notebook, beetroot appears in the months when the garden had gone quiet. Not glamorous. Better than glamorous: dependable. A row of bietjes, little beets, could sit in sand or cellar and wait out weather, bad roads, late guests, and every other thing a Dutch household was expected to survive without drama.

But let me tell you a secret. Bietensalade is not the sad purple spoonful found beside a cafeteria croquette. Done properly, it is one of the great cold-table dishes: earthy beetroot, a sharp apple, a little onion, walnuts for the bite under your teeth, and enough vinegar and mustard to keep the sweetness honest. The name doesn't pretend. Bietensalade means beet salad, and sometimes a plain name is a promise kept.

The method is the lesson. Cook the beets whole so they don't bleed themselves dull in the water, peel them only once tender, and dress them while still just warm enough to drink in the vinegar. Then chill. Cold does the quiet work here, pulling the apple, mustard, and beetroot into one deep ruby bowl. Hou het altijd simpel, always keep it simple: make it ahead, carry it to the picnic, and crumble the cheese over it at the last moment so the salad stays bright and the cheese stays itself.