Serves: 2-4
So the love affair with curry leaves continues although these play a minor role in this dish. I must own up to being inspired by a similar dish I had seen on an Instagram feed but I cannot remember who had posted it. It was just a picture so I have no idea which ingredients were used but this is my dish. I prefer to eat this as a main course salad but meat eaters could serve the salad with a roasted duck breast or a steak. If you can’t be bothered to cook the beetroot from scratch you could use the vac-packed cooked beetroot-just not the ones in vinegar.
Ingredients
- 400g trimmed raw beetroots, about 4-5, scrubbed clean
- 3 blood oranges, peeled and cut into thin slices across the “equator”
- 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
- 90g unsalted raw cashews
- 15 fresh curry leaves
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ½ teaspoon Maldon salt
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Method
- Heat the oven to fan 180°c, gas mark 6. Wrap the beetroots in an envelope of foil and bake in the oven for about 2 hours or until the beetroot are cooked through. Leave to cool then peel off the skins and cut into thin slices. Set aside.
- While the beetroots are cooking you can prepare the oranges and nuts. Arrange the slices of blood orange over the serving plate. Set aside.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan and add the cashews. Stir over a moderate heat for 2-3 minutes until the nuts are starting to turn golden brown. Add the curry leaves and cook for a minute. Stir in the paprika, cumin, cayenne and Maldon salt. Cook for a minute then tip the nuts and leaves onto a plate to cool. Roughly chop.
- To assemble, arrange the beetroot slices over the oranges. Season with a little salt and ground black pepper. Sprinkle over the chopped nuts and drizzle with the olive oil.
