I wanted to share a little treat with you today, a new recipe from my cookbook The Nourished Kitchen. After having worked on it, visiting farms, testing recipes and taking photographs, for the better part of two years, The Nourished Kitchen will finally arrive in stores (or on your doorstep if you were good enough to preorder a copy) in just a few short weeks. And, for those of you wondering, the cookbook features almost entirely new recipes and tutorials not featured in the recipe archives.
There’s something special about the tangibility of a cookbook, thumbing through pages instead of clicking through on a screen. It’s something you can hold close, pass around, dog ear and mark for your favorite recipes. It’s that real, hold-in-your-hands beauty I wanted to share with you as I carefully photographed, prepared and wrote the book.
Recipes from The Nourished Kitchen
In the book’s first chapter, I focus on foods from the kitchen garden, with emphasis on fresh, seasonal salads and vegetable side dishes. You can sneak a peek of some of the recipes in this chapter if you click through here. Each of the cookbook’s eight chapters brings focus to how and where foods are produced: gardens, pastures, rangeland, waterways, orchards and fields. Here The Nourished Kitchen emphasizes the connection between how our food is produced, how it is prepared and how it nourished our bodies, our families and our communities. My goal was to create a cookbook of beauty, tradition and connection.
Roasted Beet and Walnut Salad with Kombucha Vinaigrette
One of my family’s favorite recipes from the first chapter – from the Garden – is this Roasted Beet and Walnut Salad with Kombucha Vinaigrette in which the sweet spice of allspice and cloves and the acid notes of kombucha tea envelop roasted beets and crunchy toasted walnuts. I make this salad in cold weather from the beets we’ve grown in our garden, serving it as a wintertime salad with a hunk of crusty sourdough bread and a bowl of soup.
I like to use a mix of beets in the recipe – golden beets, deep red beets and occasionally the candy-striped chioggia. Their loveliness comes together in an exquisite way as the juice from the red beets bleeds into paler varieties, tinging them with pink.
Kombucha tea (you can learn more about how to brew it here) has a lovely sweet sour profile comparable to apple cider vinegar, which makes it a good substitute for vinegar and a fantastic pairing for sweet spices. It’s a lovely match for the earthiness of beets that want for something striking to brighten their flavor.
Quick Note for International Readers
Many of you have asked if you’ll be able to order the book in the UK, Canada or in other countries, and I’m pleased to let you know that The Nourished Kitchen will also be available in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.
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Roasted Beet and Walnut Salad with Kombucha Vinaigrette
Ingredients
Salad
- 2 pounds beets
- 1 tablespoon clarified butter or ghee Available Here, or Make It Yourself with the Tutorial in the Cookbook
- 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 small red onion sliced into rings no thicker than 1/8 inch
Kombucha Vinaigrette
- 2 tablespoons kombucha
- 1/4 teaspoon finely ground
- unrefined sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 tablespoons cold-pressed walnut oil
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- To prepare the salad, trim the beets by removing any beet tops and the tips of their roots. Dot each beet with a touch of clarified butter, then wrap each in parchment paper and again in aluminum foil. Roast the beets for 45 to 60 minutes, until they yield under the pressure of a fork. Refrigerate the beets for at least 8 and up to 24 hours.
- To prepare the vinaigrette, whisk the kombucha tea with the salt, allspice, cloves, and the walnut and olive oils. The vinaigrette will store at room temperature for up to 3 weeks, but remember to shake it vigorously before dressing the salad because the oil will separate from the tea and spices when left sitting.
- Just before serving, heat a skillet over medium-high heat for 2 to 3 minutes until very hot. Toss in the walnuts and toast them for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently to avoid scorching. Remove the cold beets from the fridge, peel them, and chop into bite-sized pieces. In a large bowl, toss the beets with the sliced onion and toasted walnuts. Drizzle with the vinaigrette, toss again, and serve.
Can the beets be steamed? I steam mine all the time and they get done quickly, 15 -20 min depending on the size…..I usually cut the big ones in half.
I roasted my beets for the first time a few nites ago and even after 2 hrs at 350 I could not get them easily pierced with a fork. I gave up and took them out; then when cooled, doused them with vinegar and s&p and put them in the fridge. The next day they were delicious cold.
Would they have been done at an hour and just they dont get soft like other roots??
I love the salad. It looks delicious and it is also nutritious.
Yum, thanks for posting! I love beets & walnuts paired together. I’ve never tried kombucha, but I think this recipe is a good place to start 🙂
I’m excited for your cookbook! Your recipes have been a source of inspiration for me.
Jenny, so excited about your new cookbook! This salad looks divine. I would have never thought to use Kombucha to make a dressing – you are BRILLIANT! Blessings to you for much success with your new book. I can’t wait to see it!! 🙂
Oh and I will definitely share this via social media to help spread the word! xo
This looks delicious! Thanks for working so hard on your cookbook. I have been waiting so long for a color cookbook that agrees with Nourishing Traditions.