Ingredients

Method

• 8 medium beetroot
• 1 T salt
• 8 cups water
• 50 g sugar
• 1/3 cup strained fresh lemon juice
• Fresh cream, for serving
• Hot boiled potatoes, for serving

Method

Ingredients

Wash the beetroot very well but don’t peel them. Trim the stalks, leaving about 5 cm, and leave on the tails so that the beetroot won’t bleed.

Place in a saucepan with the salt and water. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and cook, covered, for 1 hour or until tender. Remove the beetroot and strain the liquid.

Stir in the sugar and lemon juice. Taste for sweet-sour balance, adding more sugar or more lemon juice if necessary. If serving in glasses, add a shot of cream but use the beetroot for a salad. If serving in bowls, stir in some peeled, grated beetroot.

Either way, serve well chilled. Pass around the cream and potatoes at the table.

This recipe is featured in The Great South African Cookbook, a one-of-a-kind collection of dishes that covers the full range of South Africans’ palates.

TASTE contributors Abigail Donnelly, Siba Mtongana and Phillippa Cheifitz all feature in the book.Win a copy of The Great South African Cookbook here (competition closes 24 July 2016).