030Beetroot salad

Method

Creamy yogurt and garlic style. Serve as part of a meze spread alongside crusty bread or grilled fish.

You will need

• medium saucepan
• box grater
• colander
• mixing bowl
• garlic press

1. Place the unpeeled beetroots in a large saucepan, cover with cold salted water by several centimetres, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. 10 min Ready when: water reaches a rolling boil
2. Lower the heat to medium and simmer uncovered until the beetroots can be easily pierced to the centre with a skewer or tip of a knife, about 35 to 45 minutes. 40 min Ready when: skewer slides into the thickest part without resistance
3. Drain the cooked beetroots, let them stand until cool enough to handle, then rub off the skins using your fingers or kitchen paper and cut away the root tips. 10 min Ready when: skins slide off cleanly
4. Coarsely grate the peeled beetroots into a colander, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and let drain for 15 minutes, pressing lightly to extract excess liquid. 15 min Ready when: surplus crimson juice drains away
5. In a mixing bowl, stir together the strained Greek yogurt, crushed garlic paste, red wine vinegar, and two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. 2 min Ready when: yogurt mixture is smooth and evenly flavoured
6. Fold the drained grated beetroot into the yogurt mixture until evenly combined and brilliantly pink, then season with salt to taste. 2 min Ready when: salad is uniform vivid magenta
7. Spread into a shallow serving dish, drizzle over the remaining tablespoon of olive oil, and garnish with chopped parsley before serving chilled or at cool room temperature. 1 min Ready when: surface is glossy with olive oil

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Make ahead and storing

Can be prepared up to a day in advance; flavours deepen as it chills.

Keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Substitutions

• walnuts and extra olive oil (skordalia style) for strained Greek yogurt. Omitting the yogurt and dressing the sliced beets with olive oil and vinegar makes it vegan and fasting-friendly.

Common mistakes

• Failing to drain excess juice from the grated beetroot. Beetroot juice will thin the yogurt dressing into a runny, watery liquid.
• Peeling beetroots prior to boiling. Boiling peeled beets bleaches out their deep colour and washes away much of their sweetness.

Regional variants

• Oil-and-vinegar style: the boiled beets and their blanched greens are sliced and dressed without any yogurt.
• Some households add chopped toasted walnuts for texture.

About the dish

Pantzarosalata is a classic taverna staple served right across Greece throughout autumn and winter. The dish appears in two main domestic formats: sliced boiled roots dressed simply with garlic, olive oil, and vinegar (often including the blanched tender greens), or grated and folded into thick strained yogurt to create a vivid magenta meze. The combination relies on pungent garlic and tangy acidity to balance the earthy natural sweetness of the beetroot.

Found in all of Greece. Cooked for everyday, sunday lunch, lent.

Cousins elsewhere

• Pancar salatası (Turkish). A very similar boiled beetroot salad prepared with garlic, yogurt, and olive oil.
• Mutabbal shamandar (Levantine). A puréed beetroot spread blended with tahini or yogurt and garlic.

Nutrition per serving (estimate)

234 kcal · protein 8.2 g · fat 15.7 g (saturated 4.6 g) · carbohydrate 17.6 g (sugars 12.6 g) · fibre 4.3 g · sodium 147 mg

An estimate (summed from ingredient estimates) that varies with the exact ingredients. It is not dietary advice.

Written fresh by Epikouria editors from general culinary tradition. Recipe by the Epikouria editors. Following the taverna meze tradition of folding grated boiled beetroot into garlic-spiked strained yogurt..