Beet Elote Salad
Loosely based on Mexican street food, Beet Elote Salad replaces grilled corn with diced beets.
Servings 2
Ingredients
- 2 pounds fresh beets, peeled and diced
- 1/2 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1-1/2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1/8 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon paprika (see Kitchen Notes)
- 1/4 cup red onion, minced
- 1 tablespoon jalapeño, seeded and minced (see Kitchen Notes)
- 2 ounces cohiba or goat cheese (see Kitchen Notes)
- 2 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon fresh chives, minced
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Heat the butter and olive oil in a nonstick skillet. Add the diced beets, toss them to coat, and sauté over low heat, stirring, until the beets are soft. This will take about 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine the sour cream, lime juice, cumin, paprika, red onion, jalapeño, cohiba and 2 tablespoons of the chives, and stir until blended. Set aside.
- When the beets are done, salt and pepper to taste, then stir into the salad ingredients. Sprinkle the rest of the chives on top, and serve warm.
Kitchen Notes
The paprika. You may also experiment with smoked paprika or with a chile powder—we like New Mexico chile powder from The Spice House.
The jalapeño. Omit if you really do not care for it, or add more to make this a little spicier.
The cheese. Cohiba is the recommended cheese, but if you cannot get it, a dry crumbly goat cheese is a great substitute.
The color. This is a recipe using beets. When this salad is made with grilled corn, you see the component parts. Beets, however, are going to turn everything red red red. Scattering that last bit of chives on top at the end creates the little visual pop this dish needs.
The serving dish. Our friend Liz asked us to share the provenance of the dishes we feature in our posts. We got this lovely irregularly shaped hand-thrown bowl several years ago at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. We have no idea who the creator is—the signature, alas, is just a scribble.