This summer, I tried this whole „urban-gardening“ thing. Last year I somehow managed to grow some tomatoes and to not kill my herbs on my balcony. This year I wanted to go bigger. Unfortunately, by the time I was back in my flat after an Internship in Berlin, it was June and there was almost nothing you could still sow. Except for beetroot. At least according to the packaging. Thus began my slow transformation into a “crazy-plant-lady”.

I never thought that growing your own food could be this satisfying. After planting the seeds, no day went by that I didn’t inspect the progress my plants made, from tiny little plantlets to big, green leaves. Unfortunately, not all of them made it. Some died right after the pricking out process. Some didn’t survive the hot summer day that I spent on the beach without remembering to put them in the shade in the morning. I think it got a little weird when I insisted on taking my plants with me when visiting my parents (I mean, I´m sure they´ll all die if I leave them alone for three days). But all the hard work paid off when in October I was finally able to harvest…the tiniest beetroots ever seen. Not all plants managed to thoroughly develop and the result was a rather teeny tiny beetroot. But some did manage to grow bigger than the size of my fingernail and when I harvested them, I was the proudest plant-mama alive.

The beetroots you see in the picture are not the ones from my balcony, those were eaten quite some time ago. But the inspiration from this recipe came from my beetroot-odyssey and now, after some delay, the recipe is finally up on the blog. So if you´re in need for a break from all these Christmas cookies and eggnog or want to enjoy something light before filling up on all the delicious festive food, I got you covered.

Serves 4:

250 g kale

2 red, yellow or striped beetroot

½ butternut pumpkin

Cashews or walnuts

100 g feta cheese

For the dressing:

3 tbsp. olive oil

2 tbsp. lemon juice

Salt/pepper

½ teaspoon sugar or honey

Dried herbs

½ chopped garlic clove

1) Peel the pumpkin, cut into small pieces and roast in the oven at 200°C until tender and slightly crispy. In the meantime, wash the kale, remove stems and coarsely chop the leaves. Mix all the ingredients for the dressing, pour onto the kale and massage for a couple of minutes until soft. Let the kale sit for 10 – 15 minutes.

2) Peel beetroot and cut into slices. Roast cashews or walnuts. Add beetroot, pumpkin and cashews to the kale. Crumble the feta cheese on top and mix well.

Merken