a mo'rockin' salad

When we were in Morocco, we had a lot of incredible food. One the most memorable meals we had was when we arrived late at our riad, after a long flight delay, and had a traditional Moroccan meal. The meal started off with an assortment of salads, one of which was a cold carrot salad that was divine. It was the start of a wonderful epicurean adventure, much of which revolved around turmeric and cumin.

This week when we received beets in our CSA share, I knew I wanted to reenact the traditional Moroccan flavours to make something similar to what we had in Marrakech.

The beets were cleaned and roasted in a baking sheets alongside some carrots. A bit of water was added to the baking sheet and covered with foil. This helps control the roasting and helps it stay moist and not get too caramelized. The roasting took about 25 minutes, and as soon as the beets were cool enough to handle, they were peeled and quartered. The vinaigrette consisted of cumin, turmeric, harissa, honey, lemon juice, and salt & pepper. It was poured over the warm vegetables and left to cool in the refrigerator.

The memories came flooding back as soon as we took one bite of the salad. Both earthy and aromatic at once, the carrots and beets were tender, but not mushy and the Moroccan flavours came through beautifully.