Seasonal local food recipe No.354 – Beetroot and caraway soda bread
Frank made this loaf for Sunday lunch last weekend. The recipe’s from Anna Jones in The Guardian. You might expect the loaf to be bright pink. It was before it went into the oven but oddly, once baked, it turned to a more palatable shade of yellow! Whatever the colour it tasted great.
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Makes 1 x 750g loaf
Ingredients
300g cooked beetroot, chopped
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp caraway seeds
100ml buttermilk (or plain yoghurt let down with a splash of milk)
200g white spelt flour
200g wholemeal spelt flour
50g pumpkin seeds, plus more for sprinkling
1 tsp salt
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Black pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7. Put the beetroot (see the note below if you’re roasting your own), spices and buttermilk in a food processor and puree until smooth.
Put the flours, pumpkin seeds, salt, bicarbonate of soda and pepper into a large bowl and mix well. Pour the beetroot mixture into the flours and mix with a fork until well combined, then use your hands to gently bring the lot into a rough ball. Don’t knead it though, or it will make the finished loaf tough.
Scatter some flour over a baking sheet and put your ball of dough on top. Dust with a little more flour and a few more pumpkin seeds. Cut a deep cross in the bread, then bake for 30 – 40 minutes until golden and risen.
Remove from the oven and tap the bottom of the loaf. If you get a hollow sound, it’s perfect, so pop it on a wire rack to cool. This is delicious warm with salted or almond butter.
If you are roasting the beetroot yourself
Wash the beetroot well and trim off the stalks. Place the whole beetroot in a foil parcel, wrapped really tightly so the steam doesn’t escape. Cook for around an hour (depending on the size of your beetroot) until tender. Once cooked, allow to cool in the foil parcel, this will make it really easy to remove the skins. When cool enough to handle slip the skins off and discard. Extra roasted beetroot can be used in salads or alongside dips such as hummus.
