The good thing about cooking a ton of food for a holiday is that chances are, you will have lots of leftovers. The challenging part is finding ways to repurpose those leftovers into something different and delicious. Smoked turkey was good on a salad, leftover roasted vegetables topped our homemade thin crust pizzas. In previous years I made moussaka with leftover lamb, this year we decided on lamb wraps. In addition to the usual tzatziki sauce that I would serve with lamb, Joe suggested “something spicy.” I had some ideas but after googling it, found an interesting recipe for beet chutney.
As a beet lover, I enjoy their earthy quality and thought the sweet and sour quality of a chutney would be a nice contrast to the creamy coolness of tzatziki. The chutney comes together quickly and benefits from being made ahead, allowing the flavors to blend together. The recipes calls for a two inch diameter beet, which turned out to be just a little bit less than a cup. Tweak the sweet and sour elements to your own liking. I used golden raisins because that’s what I had on hand, dried cranberries might be nice as well. Dried cranberries would fit the color scheme and would fit right in with a Thanksgiving menu. The chutney would also be good as a appetizer on top of a cracker spread with goat cheese or Brie.
Beet Chutney
Makes about a cup
Ingredients
- 1/4c olive oil
- 1 ½c red onion
- 1 2-inch diameter red beet, peeled, cut into ¼ inch cubes
- ½c water
- ½c red wine vinegar
- 3T raisins (I used golden raisins)
- 3T sugar
- 2t chopped peeled fresh ginger
- 1t yellow mustard seeds
- Pinch of cumin seeds
Directions
- Heat olive oil in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat. Add chopped red onion and beet cubes. Cook until onion is tender but not brown, stirring frequently, about 8 minutes
- Add ½c water. Increase heat to high and boil until mixture is thick, about 5 minutes. Add vinegar, raisins, sugar, ginger, mustard seeds, and a pinch of cumin seeds. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until beet cubes are tender and the chutney is thick, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Adjust seasonings as needed and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cool.
- Can be made 1 week ahead. Cover and chill.
