Only few weeks ago I had to wear hats on cold days and bundle up. It is strange how weather can change so drastically. Today it is already 82. Where has spring gone to????

With this weather change luckily comes craving of fruits and vegetables. I believe that I had mentioned in one of my previous posts that in the summer in France, for appetizers we have “crudites”, which is an array of various salads. Generally it would be cucumber, or carrot, or even celery root salad. I know, some of you may think… Yuk..But well-seasoned, those salads are really good and bring a bit of a change to the boring green salad. I have always liked beets. Growing up my mom always bought beets in a can. To prepare her salad, she always sliced the beets in 1/2 centimeter thick and season them with a red wine vinaigrette.

All winter long I had seen those fresh beets in the fresh produce section, but never dared to buy them until yesterday. WHY? because again I would have been the only one eating them here at my house. Well, I could not resist seeing them again and really wanted to eat a beet salad so here they are today;-)

Ingredients for a salad for 4: 3 fresh beets rinsed and peeled, 1 tbp of Meyer lemon zest, the juice of half of a Meyer lemon, 1 tbsp of olive oil, 2 tbsp of sherry vinegar, 1/8 tsp of salt, 1/16 tsp of pepper.

Place the beets in the round mold and place the octogonal silpat on top to cover it. Cook in the microwave for 8 minutes. They should be soft. Meanwhile grate one half of a Myer lemon to have about 1 tbsp of zest, and squeeze the lemon juice. In a medium-sized bowl, mix the zest, the lemon juice, 2 tbsp of sherry vinegar, 1/8 tsp of salt, 1/16 tsp of pepper and mix well. Add the beets that you would have cut in a small cubes. Mix well and enjoy…

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!