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Beetroot risotto with goat’s cheese and pine-nuts

by Jeanne Horak on November 7, 2013 9 Comments in Gluten-free, Pasta & rice, Vegetarian

BeetrootRisottoTitle © J Horak-Druiff 2013

With touching faith in the reliability of our own senses, we humans are fond of saying “I’ll believe it when I see it with my own two eyes”.  But as anybody who has spent 10 minutes in a criminal court listening to an eye-witness being cross-examined will know, our eyes, ears and memories are notoriously unreliable things.  Since a friend went to blacked-out restaurant Dans le Noir this week I have been pondering the relationship between our eyes and our palates.  At the aforementioned restaurant, you eat in a completely dark room, leaving your senses of smell and taste to do all the work – and my friend said she had great difficulty in distinguishing whether she was eating, say, carrots or potatoes – or indeed fish or chicken!

It seems she is not alone in this.  There have been quite a few studies done on the effect of the visual appearance (specifically the colour) of food on our perception of its taste.  For example, test subjects were given a series of fruit flavoured drinks – yellow for a lemon-flavoured one; red for a strawberry flavoured one etc.  When the colour matched the flavour, subjects found it very easy to identify the flavours correctly – but when for example the strawberry flavoured drink was coloured green, subjects struggled to identify it.  Their eyes had led them to expect one thing while their tastebuds encountered another, leading to mass confusion.  In a similar study, subjects were given a number of identically flavoured strawberry drinks but their colours ranged from very pale pink to deep red.  Subjects consistently identified the darker coloured drinks as  being more strongly flavoured when in act they were no different to the palest ones.  Colour plays a key role in food choice by influencing taste thresholds, sweetness perception, food preference, pleasantness, and acceptability.  Obviously our caveman ancestors evolved to avoid, say, black foods as this could indicate mould and decay but modern man has apparently inherited their aversion to certain colours.  In another experiment, test subjects were fed steak and chips under coloured lights than made the food appear perfectly normal.  When the coloured lights were turned off and normal light was used instead, it became apparent that food dye had been used to colour the steak blue and the chips green – at which point most subjects refused to eat any more and some actually felt physically ill.

 

Beetroot © J Horak-Druiff 2013

 

I used to direct people to these experiments when they asked me how on earth I could not like beetroot. Anybody who has ever peeled a beetroot and ended up looking like a mass-murderer; or served it up at a barbeque next to a potato salad and watched it turn the blameless potatoes a distressing shade of purple will know what I mean.  The colour is too reminiscent of blood; too intense, which in turn magnifies one’s perception of the peculiarly earthy taste. Add to this the fact that I don’t like the vinegar that beetroot are often pickled in and you have a perfect storm of vegetable dislike. But the older I got, the more I wanted to like beetroot.  It’s super good for you – packed with antioxidants (betacyanin that gives the beetroot its colour), iron, soluble fiber and silica which helps the body to absorb calcium. It’s also one of the few things still growing on the allotment in the dark days of November. For me, the eureka moment with beetroot was the day I roasted them.  As with most vegetables, roasting caramelises the natural sugars in beetroot, gives it an appealing texture and makes it far more palatable than any other method of cooking I’ve tried. Once roasted they can be eaten at once or pureed and frozen to last through winter.  Or you can puree and use them immediately as I did, in this jewel-coloured and perfectly autumnal risotto.

 

BeetrootRisottoFinal © J Horak-Druiff 2013

 

Other memorable risotto recipes from food bloggers include:

  • Margot’s creamy carrot risotto
  • Michelle’s leek and bacon risotto
  • Kalyn’s barley risotto with mushrooms

 

 

5.0 from 1 reviews
Beetroot risotto with goat's cheese and pine nuts
 
Print
Prep time
2 hours
Cook time
30 mins
Total time
2 hours 30 mins
 
This jewel-coloured risotto with its classic flavour pairing of beetroot and goat's cheese is a perfect Autumnal treat.
Author: Jeanne Horak-Druiff
Recipe type: Entree
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 2 large fresh beetroot
  • olive oil for roasting
  • 4 shallots, peeled and diced
  • 4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
  • 750ml chicken or vegetable stock
  • 30g + 30g of butter
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 350g risotto rice
  • 150ml white wine
  • Juice of ½ lemon
  • 100g Parmesan, freshly grated
  • Salt and black pepper
  • 50g fresh goat's cheese
  • 40g toasted pine nuts
  • wild rocket leaves
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Remove the beetroot leaves (don't discard - they can be sautéed like spinach) and wash the beetroot. Rub the beets all over with olive oil and roast in the middle of the oven for about 90 minutes or until the beets are soft when pierced with a sharp knife. Allow the beets to cool, then peel, cube and purée in a food processor together with 50ml of the stock. Set aside.
  2. Melt 30g of the butter together with the olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add the shallots and garlic and sauté until the shallots are translucent and soft but do not let them brown. Add the rice and cook for a minute or two, stirring constantly stir so that each grain is well-coated with oil/butter. Add the white wine and keep stirring until the liquid has been absorbed almost completely.
  3. Add the hot stock a ladleful at a time (probably about 150-200 ml per ladle). Keep stirring until each ladleful has been completely absorbed, but do not let the rice dry out and stick to the pot. Once each ladleful is absorbed, add the next until the stock has all been added. The rice should be soft but each grain should retain some bite in the centre, perfectly al dente, which should take about 20 minutes.
  4. When the rice is done, stir the lemon juice and beetroot purée into the rice, followed by the Parmesan. Check for seasoning and add sat and pepper as needed. Stir in the final 30g of butter, cut into small cubes.
  5. Serve in shallow bowls topped with crumbled goat's cheese, toasted pine nuts and wild rocket leaves.
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  1. Andrew says

    November 8, 2013 at 8:11 pm

    Exactly why I hate totally blind wine tastings – I NEED to know at the very least the colour of the liquid in my glass. Without that basic knowledge I find it impossible…

    Just got to add that the beetroot photo is fab; lovely light and perfect focusing.

    Reply
  2. Katie Bryson says

    November 9, 2013 at 12:37 pm

    What a stunner! I adore the vibrant colour that beetroot brings to recipes and this one looks divine – especially against the contrasting fluffy white goats cheese. Bet it tastes a bit of alright too!

    Reply
  3. Beth Young says

    November 9, 2013 at 3:01 pm

    Looks wonderful! I’ve never had a beetroot risotto here in Italy but can’t wait to try it out on my Italian friends!

    Reply
  4. Urvashi says

    November 10, 2013 at 3:13 pm

    This is one dish I have not tried yet with my beetroot glut but now it’s colder I will have to give it a go. Looks gorgeous with that cheese and rocket and a lovely idea to add the crunch of pine nuts. Lovely musings too about senses and taste. It’s so true isn’t it. We made green (vomit) mash for halloween. My daughter’s loved it but their friends didn’t go near it!

    Reply
  5. Rosa says

    November 10, 2013 at 5:51 pm

    A beautiful risotto! Very original and surely mighty delicious. I’m a sucker for beets.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

    Reply
  6. Jacqueline says

    November 11, 2013 at 12:17 am

    It’s funny how much colour plays a part in food and how we react to it. I love the colour of this risotto and goats cheese is so good with beetroot, a great pairing.

    Reply
  7. Kit says

    November 13, 2013 at 3:12 pm

    I love the colour in the photo, but I noticed that my immediate assumption that it would be incredibly rich and filling… so that must be colour programming coming into play!
    I used to hate beetroot because of the vinegar soaked stuff of school dinners, usually ruing a perfectly good plate of inoffensive salad. My revelation was in autumn Tuscany, when I used to buy beetroots roasted in wood ash. The skins were all burnt and covered in ash, but when you cut them off the inside was so tender, smoky and delicious, it was totally worth looking like you’d been in a bloodbath for those!

    Reply
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Jeanne Horak is a freelance food and travel writer; recipe developer and photographer. South African by birth and Londoner by choice, Jeanne has been writing about food and travel on Cooksister since 2004. She is a popular speaker on food photography and writing has also contributed articles, recipes and photos to a number of online and print publications. Jeanne has also worked with a number of destination marketers to promote their city or region. Please get in touch to work with her Read More…

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