Chef Thomas
A Ploughman's Salad
The old pub ploughman's, shaken loose from its board and laid across butter lettuce with a sharp mustard dressing, for the kind of lunch that feels like you've given yourself the afternoon off.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Roasted Beetroot with Horseradish Cream and Walnuts
Created by Chef Thomas
Beetroot roasted until sweet and yielding, set against the sharp bite of horseradish cream and the bitter crunch of toasted walnuts, with watercress scattered over the top like it grew there.
Salads
British
Dinner Party
Make Ahead
15 min
Active Time
50 min cook•1 hr 5 min total
Yield4 servings
October, and the beetroot at the Saturday market looked like something pulled from the earth five minutes ago. Soil still clinging to the skins, leaves still attached, that deep crimson you only get when they've had their time in the ground and nobody rushed them. I bought more than I needed, which is the only way to buy beetroot.
Roasting does something to a beet that boiling never will. The heat concentrates the sugars until the edges caramelise and the centre turns dense and sweet, almost fudgy. The kitchen smells of damp earth and something faintly mineral, a smell that sits right on the border between savoury and sweet. You'll know they're done before you open the oven. Your nose will tell you.
Horseradish is the counterweight. Without it, roasted beetroot is all warmth and sweetness with nowhere to go. The horseradish cream cuts through with a sharpness that clears the sinuses and wakes the whole plate up. Walnuts bring a bitter crunch, watercress brings pepper. Four ingredients, each one doing a different job, none of them competing. This is the kind of salad you put in the middle of the table and let people help themselves from, spooning the cream alongside, reaching for more bread.
I wrote it down in the notebook last autumn: beetroot, horseradish, walnuts, watercress. Friday. Cold outside. Sometimes a list of ingredients is all the recipe you need.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
beetroot
Quantity
6-8 medium
scrubbed, trimmed, unpeeled
olive oil
Quantity
2 tablespoons
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
thyme (optional)
Quantity
a few sprigs
soured cream or crème fraîche
Quantity
150ml
fresh horseradish
Quantity
2-3 tablespoons
freshly grated
lemon juice
Quantity
a squeeze
walnuts
Quantity
60g
roughly broken
watercress
Quantity
a generous bunch
tough stems removed
extra virgin olive oil
Quantity
for finishing
flaky sea salt
Quantity
for finishing
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| beetrootscrubbed, trimmed, unpeeled | 6-8 medium |
| olive oil | 2 tablespoons |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| thyme (optional) | a few sprigs |
| soured cream or crème fraîche | 150ml |
| fresh horseradishfreshly grated | 2-3 tablespoons |
| lemon juice | a squeeze |
| walnutsroughly broken | 60g |
| watercresstough stems removed | a generous bunch |
| extra virgin olive oil | for finishing |
| flaky sea salt | for finishing |
Equipment Needed
- •Large sheet of aluminium foil
- •Baking tray
- •Box grater for the horseradish
- •Wide serving plate or shallow dish
Instructions
- 1
Roast the beetroot
Set the oven to 200C/180C fan. Scrub the beetroot under cold water but don't peel them. The skins protect the flesh while it roasts and slip off easily afterwards. Tumble them onto a large sheet of foil, drizzle with olive oil, scatter with salt and the thyme if you have it. Wrap the foil into a loose but sealed parcel and set it on a baking tray. Roast for forty to fifty minutes, depending on size. They're done when a knife slides through the centre without resistance, no push, no fight. The kitchen will smell of sweet earth and something almost caramelised. That's the sign.
Smaller beets roast faster. If yours are uneven sizes, check the smaller ones earlier and pull them out first. A beet that is overcooked turns woolly. A beet that is perfectly cooked is dense and sweet and yielding. - 2
Make the horseradish cream
While the beets roast, stir the soured cream, grated horseradish, and lemon juice together in a bowl. Season with a pinch of salt. Taste it. The horseradish should make itself known, a clean, nasal heat that hits the back of the nose and then retreats. If it's too polite, add more. You want this to cut through the sweetness of the beetroot, not tiptoe around it. Cover and leave in the fridge until you're ready to serve. It improves as it sits.
Fresh horseradish is worth finding if you can. It has a brightness that the jarred sort can't quite match. Peel it under cold running water and grate it on the fine side of a box grater. Your eyes will water. This is correct. - 3
Toast the walnuts
Scatter the walnuts on a small baking tray and put them in the oven for the last five or six minutes of the beetroot's cooking time. Watch them. Walnuts go from toasted to burnt in the time it takes to answer the phone. You want them golden and fragrant, smelling warm and slightly bitter. Take them out and break any large pieces roughly with your hands. Leave them to cool.
Toast more walnuts than you need. You'll eat half of them standing at the counter, and the rest will go on porridge or into a salad later in the week. - 4
Peel and cut the beetroot
When the beetroot are tender, open the foil parcel and let them cool until you can handle them without burning your fingers. The skins should slide off under gentle thumb pressure. If they resist, the beets needed longer. Cut them into irregular wedges and halves, some thick, some thin. You want different shapes so the dressing catches in different ways. Don't be neat about it.
- 5
Assemble and serve
Spread the warm beetroot across a wide plate or shallow dish. Spoon the horseradish cream over and around the beets in rough, generous dollops, not smoothed, not piped, just spooned. Scatter the toasted walnuts over the top. Tuck the watercress into the gaps, letting it sit where it falls rather than arranging it. Finish with a good pour of extra virgin olive oil and a few flakes of sea salt. Bring it to the table as it is. The beetroot should still be warm, the cream cold, the watercress fresh. That contrast is the whole point.
Chef Tips
- •Buy beetroot with the leaves still on. It tells you they're fresh. The leaves, if they're in good shape, can be washed and wilted in butter like spinach. Two meals from one vegetable.
- •The horseradish cream can be as sharp or as gentle as you like, but I'd push it. Beetroot is sweet and earthy and it needs something to push back against. A cream that is too mild disappears into the background. You want to feel it.
- •This works beautifully alongside roast lamb or a piece of grilled mackerel, but it's also perfectly good on its own with some bread and butter. Don't feel it needs a main event. Vegetables don't have to be a side dish.
- •If you can find golden or Chioggia beetroot alongside the purple, use a mix. The colours on the plate are worth it, and each variety has a slightly different sweetness. The purple will stain everything it touches. Accept this.
Advance Preparation
- •The beetroot can be roasted up to two days ahead and kept, unpeeled, in the fridge. Peel and cut them an hour before serving and let them come to room temperature, or warm them briefly in a low oven.
- •The horseradish cream can be made the morning of and refrigerated. It actually sharpens as it sits, which is no bad thing.
- •Toast the walnuts on the day. They lose their crunch overnight. This takes five minutes and is worth doing fresh.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 300g)
Calories
380 calories
Total Fat
28 g
Saturated Fat
7 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
21 g
Cholesterol
15 mg
Sodium
635 mg
Total Carbohydrates
30 g
Dietary Fiber
9 g
Sugars
18 g
Protein
8 g
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