Chocolate roasted beetroot with avocado, fennel and labneh balls

Great as a side salad, this would also make a lovely light lunch with a slice of good sourdough loaf and whipped salted butter or a peppery extra virgin olive oil to dip in. This recipe has the bonus that you could prep almost everything the day before serving.

Chocolate roasted beetroot with fennel and cocoa nib dukkah labneh balls. Credit: Rachel Khoo's Chocolat!

• serves

  4-6

• prep

  30 minutes

• cook

  45 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

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Ingredients

• 680 g baby beetroot with stalks
• ¼ cup (60ml) olive oil
• Generous pinch of salt
• ¼ cup (60ml) balsamic vinegar
• 3 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 100 g pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
• 4 clementines (or use other sweet mandarin varieties), segmented (removing segment skin) and juice reserved
• 1½ tbsp (30 ml) olive oil
• 1 small fennel bulb
• 1 ripe avocado
• Generous pinch of salt

Labneh balls with cacao nib dukkah

• 30 g almonds
• 30 g hazelnuts
• 1½ tbsp sunflower seeds
• 1½ tbsp cacao nibs
• 1½ tbsp sesame seeds
• 1½ tsp fennel seeds
• 3 tsp cumin seed
• 3 tsp coriander seed
• 200 g labneh/goat’s cheese

Serves 4 to 6 as a side (plus a small jar of excess dukkah)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C or 200°C fan-forced.
2. Peel the beetroot and cut in half. If possible leave a little of the stalk attached.
3. Drizzle with the olive oil and a pinch of salt then place in a roasting tin and roast for 40 minutes or until they are tender (you should be able to easily insert a knife). Mix the balsamic, cocoa powder, pepper and pumpkin seeds together and drizzle over the roasted beetroots. Return to the oven for 5 minutes so they can become sticky. Remove from the oven and set aside. Turn the oven down to 200°C (180°C fan-forced).
4. For the dukkah, place the almonds, hazelnuts and sunflower seeds on a baking tray and place into the oven. Roast until fragrant and lightly toasted – around 8 to 10 minutes. Once toasted, remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Meanwhile, add the remaining dukkah ingredients to a medium frying pan and toast on the stove over a medium-high heat, stirring often, until the sesame seeds begin to turn golden. Remove from the heat and mix with the toasted nuts/seeds on the baking tray. Grind this mixture until it has a coarse, breadcrumb-like texture either by pulsing in a food processor or pestle and mortar.
5. Roll tablespoons of the labneh into balls. Pour a few tablespoons of the dukkah onto a large plate and roll the labneh balls around in it to coat, adding more dukkah to the plate as needed.
6. Meanwhile peel and segment the clementines, making sure to reserve the juice. Whisk 3 tablespoons (¼ cup) of the clementine juice together with the olive and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Use a mandoline or a sharp knife to make the fennel shavings. Halve the avocado, remove the pit and peel, then slice the flesh. Toss everything into the large bowl with the dressing and check seasoning. Adjust if required.
7. When the beetroots are done, pour them and any remaining dressing from the roasting tin onto a large serving plate. Add the rest of the ingredients from the bowl and gently toss once or twice.
8. This is best served at room temperature immediately (the fennel may start to go a little brown otherwise).
   

Get ahead

• The dukkah can be made up to a week in advance and stored in an airtight container in a cool place. This recipe makes more than you will need. Leftovers can be used for sprinkling over a variety of dishes as an easy pick-me-up – .e.g. over grilled/steamed/roasted veg, over a salad, over grilled meat or on avocado toast. You can swap the nuts and seeds for what you have on hand/what you like.
• The beetroot mix can be roasted and prepped in advance; store in an airtight container in the fridge. Reheat in a preheated oven at 180°C (160°C fan-forced) for 20-30 minutes so the pumpkin seeds crisp up again (they tend to go a bit soft in the fridge).
• The clementine/mandarin segments can prepared the day before and stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
• Make sure to remove everything from the fridge 30 minutes before serving.
• Preparing the avocado and fennel and tossing the salad together is best done no more than 30 minutes before serving as the fennel will have a tendency to go brown.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

Stream free On Demand

Rachel Khoo's Chocolat

series • 

cooking

PG

series • 

cooking

PG