Does anyone else miss Cafe Bar Deli? It’s so sad to see its former home on Georges Street locked up and empty these days. Many’s the pizza-and-red-wine Friday evening catch-up with friends I had there over the past decade – the food and service were always reliable and it was an affordable option even in my temping days. The menu included some lovely salads, too, my particular favourite being a beetroot, goat’s cheese and bacon combo.
Alas, himself is beetroot-averse, so I don’t get to eat the stuff all that often. But, with the house to myself on Saturday, and fridgeful of fresh food from the market, I decided to have a go at recreating the CBD salad for myself. All the ingredients below were purchased at the market (even the rapeseed oil), with the exception of the beetroot, which hailed from my parents’ polytunnel, and the thyme, which came from my back garden.
Roasted beetroot, goat’s cheese and bacon salad a la Cafe Bar Deli
Ingredients for one greedy dinner portion:
4 small fresh beetroots
a sprig of thyme, roughly chopped
a couple of glugs of rapeseed oil (olive oil is also fine)
75g goat’s cheese of your choosing (I went for lovely creamy Gortnamona)
4 streaky rashers (mine came from the Ryan farm’s own butcher counter)
1 head little gem lettuce (Irish! hooray!)
For the orange balsamic dressing:
juice of half an orange
an equal amount of rapeseed or olive oil
about a teaspoonful of balsamic vinegar
freshly ground black pepper to taste
What to do:
Preheat the oven to 200C / 180C fan.
Top and tail the beetroots, leaving about 2cm of stalk. Wash and pat dry.
Place in a roasting dish and drizzle the oil over. Season with a little sea salt and the chopped thyme and roll the beetroots in the oil to coat them well. Roast for 40-45 minutes until tender.
Meanwhile, wash and dry the lettuce, trimming any dodgy-looking outer leaves, and chop or tear the leaves up. Snip the rashers into small pieces and fry off until crispy.
To make the dressing, put the juice, oil and balsamic in a sealable container (a jam jar will do) and shake well to combine. Season to taste and adjust the quantities if necessary.
Once the beetroot is roasted, leave to cool for a few minutes. Remove the skins and chop into bite-sized wedges.
Heap the beetroot, bacon and lettuce into a large bowl and add the goat’s cheese, a chunk at a time. Pour over the dressing and mix through the lot. Serve immediately with a hunk of crusty bread, a glass of wine, and some really trashy TV of the sort you only watch when you’re home alone (No Reservations, in my case. So bad it’s almost good).
July 13th, 2011 at 11:48 am
Lovely stuff, that dressing seems really interesting especially. Have made a point of getting more beetroot lately, I always associate it with being a winter vegetable even though it comes into season around this time of year. Bought a big bunch on Moore Street for €2 and have managed to get three meals out of the leaves, stalks and roots and have another one planned for tomorrow with what’s left over.
July 13th, 2011 at 12:14 pm
Roasted beetroot and orange seem to really like each other! A couple of bashed-up toasted walnuts would go quite well too, I think.
That’s a brilliant bargain on Moore Street! I love this time of year for veggies – growing up, I would have permanently pink-stained fingers from all the beetroot. I may have to plant a tiny patch of it in our garden now, just for me…
August 1st, 2011 at 11:22 pm
[...] Spoon goes to the Honest to Goodness Market; has nostalgic salad; has Pizza Irish Style and goes on a food [...]