Paper Chef 14: Roasted baby beet, labanya and quinoa salad

Yay Paper Chef! You've done it once again. You've caused me to step outside my comfort zone and try something new, which (I am very happy to say) was a resounding success. Quinoa will henceforth be a new staple in our house.

For those of you who have no idea what Paper Chef is all about, let me explain very briefly. Owen Linderholm, of Tomatilla, thought it would be a great idea to do a blog-based version of (sort of) Iron Chef.  Once a month, on a Friday, Owen draws four random ingredients out of his magic chef's hat. The food blogging community then has until noon on Monday to come up with their own interpretation of the ingredients. Sometimes the ingredients are pretty easy to make into something. Other times they are a bit more challenging. What never fails to amaze me though, is the very different concoctions Paper Chef participants come up with. You'll never see the same thing twice, and you'll certainly see a whole lot of things that astound you. You'll also likely think, "why didn't I think of that?"

The thing I like most about Paper chef is that it makes me try new ingredients, or new ways of thinking about familiar ingredients, that I wouldn't otherwise try. I think the once monthly kick in the pants to trey something new makes me a better cook.

This month Paper Chef is being hosted by Belly Timber, so get on over there and check out the roundup of entries!

Now, the quandary. What to do with this months 4 ingredients? Quinoa, yogurt, cashews and "baby" (as in small not gerbers) food?

Before I tell you what I did, a word about Labanya. For those of you that have been reading Lex Culinaria since the beginning will now that labanya's nothing new in our house. It's a Middle Eastern soft cheese made from hung yogurt. Depending on the yogurt you use, it can be very mild and tastes like a cross between goats cheese (with a slight acid note) and cream cheese. It has a texture very similar to soft cream cheese. In our house we spread it on toasted bagels instead of cream cheese.

Okay. That said, this is where I ended up after pacing my kitchen deep in thought:

Roasted baby beet, Labanya and quinoa salad - serves 4

• 600 gm whole baby beets (about 6-8)

• 1 L full fat Greek style yogurt
• salt, pepper

• 2/3 c quinoa
• 1 Litre water
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup cashews, toasted and roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup Italian parsley, roughly chopped
• salt, pepper

• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 olive oil
• 1 egg yolk
• salt, pepper

• 3 cups baby salad greens

For the Labanya: Line a 2 litre mixing bowl with cheesecloth. Empty the whole 1 Litre of yogurt into the middle of the cheesecloth. Gather up the ends and sides of the cloth and twist until cloth is just taut over yogurt. Tie yogurt filled cloth so that it is suspended over your counter (I tie mine to the knob of the upper cupboard). Place the 2 litre bowl underneath to catch drips. Leave yogurt suspended overnight, up to 15 hours. After 12-15 hours, the yogurt should be reduced in volume by at least half. Untie bag and place stiff ball of cheese into a small mixing bowl. Stir in salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

This is what your labanya should look like when you unwrap it!

To roast the beets: Wrap beets in foil. Roast in a 425F oven for one hour. Allow to cool until you can handle them easily. Unwrap the beets and use your fingers to rub the skins off. Do this under cool running water, or you'll never get the pink out of your skin! Pat beets dry with paper towel. Slice beets very thinly. Set aside.

To cook the quinoa: rinse 2/3 cup of quinoa under cold running water in a fine mesh sieve. Place in small saucepan with a pinch or two of salt and 1 litre of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Drain cooked quinoa in sieve. Saute minced garlic cloves in butter over medium heat, when garlic is golden, add cooked, drained quinoa. Cook and stir for 3 minutes to evaporate any excess water from the quinoa. remove from heat, add salt and pepper, chopped parsley and all but 1 Tablespoon of the cashew nuts. Gently stir through 1 heaping tablespoon of labanya. Set aside.

To make the dressing: combine lemon juice, garlic, oil and egg in a small, tall sided container. Whip with an immersion blender until well blended and slightly frothy. Season with salt and pepper. If you don't have an immersion blended with a whip attachment, you could blend it on high in a jug-style blender.

To assemble: grease the inside of a biscuit cutter, or large round cookie cutter. Place greased cutter on plate. Layer several slices of beet inside cutter on plate, making sure the beet slices overlap so that the bottom of the circle is completely covered. dollop 1/4 cup of the labanya on top of the beet layer. Use the wetted back of a tablespoon to smooth the labanya layer out evenly to the edges of the ring. Fill the ring loosely to the top with the quinoa mixture. Press down gently on the quinoa with the back of a wetted spoon to compress. Cover the quinoa layer with another layer of overlapping beets. Press down to compress.

While pressing gently on the top layer of beets, gently slide the biscuit ring up and off. Scatter some baby greens over the top of the salad stack and sprinkle with a pinch of the reserved cashews. Drizzle dressing over.

I know there's a lot of prep work involved here, but it's not really labour intensive prep work at all. It's just waiting time. You could easily roast the beets, prepare the quinoa mixture and dressing while your yogurt is hanging. If you did this all the day before, you could assemble all four salads in 10 or 15 minutes.

This dish covers the entire taste and texture range and does it beautifully. The sweet and earthy beets, tangy garlicky dressing, springy quinoa and creamy labanya - Cakes kept asking if he could have another. This is definitely a keeper. Now if only I could figure out how to stop the beet juice from bleeding into the labanya!

Comments

[Fran]

This looks wonderful. I love to try new combinations and I like all of these ingredients--the new thing I have been wanting to try, of course, is the quinoa. Thank you.

[Erica]

I love quinoa! Did you know that it has 12 grams of protein in a cup? And the protein is more "complete" than most other grains (it is not missing lysine, an amino acid). Your salad looks delicious, I will definitely try this one -- I've been trying to convert my fiance into a beet lover!

[sam]

good job!
I wasn't in the mood for the paper chef ingredients this weekend, but seeing that picture, and not having had dinner yet, I am suddenly hit with a pang of regret.

I haven't been a total lazy arse this weekend, I spent a long time creating a food dish outside of my own personalp commfort zone too, for an event taking place next weekend. Trouble is - I have to leave it a few days before trying it and the suspense is killing me...

ok - you got me too hungry- dinner time...
(but wish i had some beets like yours)

[Ruth]

That looks awesome!!!

Thanks for sharing

[Alanna]

Oh so beautiful! I must get bring out the ramekins more often! (EVER) AK

[Ivonne]

You're incredibly creative! That salad looks lovely ... good luck!

[mrs D]

Beautiful entry - thank you!

[culinary bookworm]

That is a lovely salad. I wish I'd known how to make labanya when I did my Paper Chef entry--it would have made my yogurt icing much thicker. A great technique to know--thanks!

[Kimberly]

What a gorgeous stacked salad! While I understand the desire for a clean line between the labanya and the beets, I love that little bit of fuschia in your photo.

[Karina]

I'm late here - but just wanted to say - that's one dead sexy quinoa salad. Love it!