Gluten-free · Soy-free · Nut-free

 

Sometimes, the inspiration for dishes doesn’t come from the ingredient itself. Sometimes it can come from the equipment! That’s the case with these beautiful beets spheres. Believe it or not, this dish was inspired by the melon baller! I saw it in my kitchen drawer and thought “I wonder if I could cook beets in that shape?“. I didn’t know if it would work at first but decided to try it out anyway.

Of course, when you use a melon baller (or Parisien as the French call it), it’s inevitable that you’re going to be left with a significant amount of waste of whatever food you’re using it on, simply because of the nature of the circular shapes.

I remembered the time when I was working at a hotel in Mexico, the chef used to throw away all those melon trims after we used the melon baller to cut out the melon spheres. Sadly, food waste is often abundant in hotels because they have so much food to prepare and so much work to do that they don’t have the workers or the time to use all the trim that they produce. That doesn’t make it acceptable, of course, because as chefs we should always strive to make the most out of the products we have. I always strive to reduce food waste as much as possible from my kitchen, so as I thought of this beet sphere idea, I immediately tried to think of a way to use the leftover beet I was going to have left. So I decided to make this luscious beet purée out of it to accompany the glazed beets. It would add some texture and a completely different flavor to the dish.

I also ended up whipping up a quick parsley pesto to add color and freshness to the dish. These beet spheres are incredibly delicious; they’re glazed with shallots, white wine, and vegetable broth and then slowly cooked in the pan. Honestly, once you taste them you’re going to want to make them again, and often. Their texture is soft with very little resistance, they hold their shape, and the liquid they absorb gives them so much flavor. They also become shiny due to their own sugars and the little bit of maple syrup that I added. 

You can choose how big you want the beet spheres to be, and it’ll depend on what size melon baller you have of course. Just remember that smaller balls take less time to cook, and bigger ones take more, so keep an eye on them.

Substitutions

I used golden beets in this recipe to show off that beautiful color, but of course you could make it with red beets and it would look gorgeous too. Red beets are a little bit sweeter than golden beets, so I would add more acidity to them to achieve a nice balance in flavor.

Equipment

For these glazed golden beets, you’ll need:

• 1 melon baller or Parisien

• 1 large skillet

• Parchment paper

• 1 vegetable peeler 

• 1 chef knife 

• 1 cutting board 

• 1 high-speed blender 

• pestle & mortar 

• 1 fine sieve or chinois

USES

Serve this beautiful dish as an appetizer, stick a toothpick into the spheres and serve them as canapés, make them into a side dish, or even just make the spheres themselves and use them as part of a salad.

 

 

Watch the recipe video below:

 

Serves 4 (as an appetizer)

Ingredients

Beet Spheres (yields 46 balls, about 6g each)

850g golden beets (3 large beets)

30ml extra-virgin olive oil

40g brunoise shallots (about 1/2 medium shallot)

18ml maple syrup

75ml white wine, preferably Sauvignon blanc

200ml vegetable broth 

Sea salt, to taste

Freshly-squeezed lemon juice, to taste

Beet Purée

520g golden beet trims, leftover from Beet Spheres

20ml virgin olive oil 

50ml water 

Sea salt, to taste

1/4 lemon

Parsley Pesto

2g garlic (1/2 small clove), chopped 

13g fresh parsley leaves (1 small bunch)

44ml extra-virgin olive oil 

Sea salt, to taste

Splash of lemon juice

Toppings

25g toasted walnuts

Method

beet spheres

1. Peel the beets and cut as many spheres out of them as you can using a Parisien (melon baller). Place them in a bowl filled with water to prevent them from oxidizing. Reserve the trim to make the beet purée.

2. In a large pan, add olive oil and shallots. Cook on low flame for 3 minutes, then add the drained beet spheres and maple syrup. Cook for 3 more minutes.

3. Add the wine to deglaze the pan. Cover and cook for_ minutes, or until half of it has evaporated. Add vegetable broth and enough salt so that all the spheres are well seasoned. Cover again and cook on low flame for about 40 minutes, or until you can insert a cake tester or toothpick into the spheres and it goes all the way through without resistance. If all the broth evaporates and the beets are still not completely cooked, add some more broth, 2 tbsp at a time.

Beet purée

1. Steam the golden beet trim in a large steamer for 25-30 minutes or until soft, but not mushy.

2. Transfer them into a high-speed blender and add olive oil and water. Blend on high for 1 minute until the purée is smooth, scraping down the sides of the blender as necessary. Season with salt and lemon juice to taste.

parsley pesto

1. In a pestle and mortar, add garlic and salt. Crush it to form a garlic purée, then add half of the parsley leaves and a little bit of the olive oil. Mash everything together until the leaves have broken down completely. Then add the rest of the parsley and oil and mash again. Season with salt and lemon juice to taste.

To plate, spoon some of the beet purée onto the serving plate(s). Spoon a little bit of the parsley pesto around as well, then add beet spheres in groups of 3, 4, or just 1 or 2. Top with some of the beet sphere cooking liquid remaining in the pan and toasted walnuts.