Yellow Beet Salad With Mustard Seed Dressing

Name: Yellow Beet Salad With Mustard Seed Dressing
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients: 5 or 6 medium yellow beets (about 2 pounds); 1 small shallot, finely diced; 2 tablespoons lemon juice; 1 tablespoon rice vinegar; 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard; 2 tablespoons freshly grated horseradish, plus more for garnish; Salt and pepper; 4 tablespoons mild vegetable oil; 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds; 1/2 teaspoon nigella seeds

By David Tanis

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Rating: 5(140)
Notes: Read community notes

If you are beet-phobic because you fear the inevitable crimson stains, try golden yellow beets instead. Yellow beets, nearing orange on the color spectrum, are slightly milder than red ones. They make a beautiful assertive salad, dressed with horseradish, mustard and mustard seeds.

Featured in: A Better Beet, Fresh From the Market

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Ingredients

Yield:4 to 6 servings

5 or 6medium yellow beets (about 2 pounds)
1small shallot, finely diced
2tablespoons lemon juice
1tablespoon rice vinegar
1teaspoon Dijon mustard
2tablespoons freshly grated horseradish, plus more for garnish
Salt and pepper
4tablespoons mild vegetable oil
1teaspoon black mustard seeds
½teaspoon nigella seeds

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

Step 1
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Put scrubbed beets in a small roasting pan with an inch of water in the bottom. Cover tightly and bake until beets are tender when probed with a paring knife or skewer, about 1 hour. Alternatively, cook beets on the stovetop in simmering salted water for about 30 minutes.
Step 2
Meanwhile, make the vinaigrette: Put shallot, lemon juice, rice vinegar, mustard and horseradish in a small bowl. Add good pinch of salt and pepper and stir to incorporate. Whisk in 3 tablespoons vegetable oil.
Step 3
Heat a very small skillet with 1 tablespoon oil. When oil is hot, add mustard seeds and nigella seeds. They will begin to pop after about 1 minute. Carefully scrape popped seeds and oil into the vinaigrette. Taste and adjust seasoning.
Step 4
Let beets cool slightly, then use fingers or a kitchen towel to rub skin off beets. Slice beets crosswise into ¼-inch rounds and place in a wide salad bowl.
Step 5
Sprinkle beet slices lightly with salt, then gently toss with the dressing. Grate a little more horseradish over the top. Serve at room temperature.

Ratings

5 out of 5

140 user ratings

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Private Notes

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Cooking Notes

Marie6 years ago

Perfect as is, served with baby pea shoots and quinoa, would work well too with a little green lentils.

Carol6 years ago

Roasted for an hour at 400 in foil with 1/2 large onion cut into wedges, so didn't add shallot to the dressing. Since I didn't have fresh horseradish, I added 1 T of prepared horseradish. Excellent.

SharonATX6 years ago

This recipe is 4 stars just for the dressing, which was unique and a complete umami explosion. We doubled it and then used the extra dressing to toss with kale, with the dressed beets on top. Good, different. Careful with the temperature around those seeds!

Renee6 years ago

Loved this! Used half red beets, as my bunch of golden beets wasn't big enough. Used a locally made garlic mustard, as well. Will definitely be eating this often; it was amazing with sauteed garlickly beet greens and cumin-crusted tofu.

JK in ME6 years ago

Wow, this has a lot of flavor! It made me realize I need more horseradish and nigella seed in my repertoire. I had white wine vinegar, but it worked fine in place of the rice vinegar. The beets took 90 minutes to roast rather than an hour.

Cara4 years ago

Made this tonight w/fennel rice (so good). I saw the comments last week about how amazing the dressing is, so I made that part over the weekend to have on salad and it was... ...fine. Wasn’t sure what everyone was raving about, but since I had some golden, candy stripe and regular beets in my fridge, I figured it’d be an easy roast and toss dish. WOW what a Surprise! This dish is a great example of a result being so much greater that the sum of its parts!! Ridiculously delicious and easy.

Monica Welch3 years ago

Amazing, the fresh horseradish certainly took it up a level! Couldnt find nigella seeds so used cumin seeds instead. This will be a go-to beet salad recipe. Used baby arugula dressed with some dressing as a base. Excellent!

river red1 month ago

Didn’t have horseradish, but subbed spicy brown mustard and a little ginger. Still delicious. Served with quinoa as suggested, and some feta cheese and chopped walnuts sprinkled on top. Lovely summer lunch!

Aunt Lucy1 year ago

The dressing itself is delicious, but we felt it hid, rather than highlighted, the sweetness of the beets. The dressing will be perfect for some leafy greens, and the beets we ate with sea salt. The only adjustment to the dressing recipe was using jarred horseradish and about half that the recipe called for.

Name Faye2 years ago

This was a hit at a potluck. Made the beets and dressing early in the day. Refrigerated the beets until about 2 hours before event. Sliced and tossed and let come to room temperature. Very attractive in a dark salad bowl. Easy peasy.

Jennie2 years ago

Very nice but rather caloric beet salad. I like all the ingredients and it tastes good but if I were to remake it I would halve the oil. There is no cilantro in the recipe (as shown in the photo).

Usha2 years ago

I’m from S India and we use black mustard seeds to temper almost all our dishes. Heat oil on med high, add mustard seeds. Put a lid on the pan! Once the popping starts move pan to a cold surface but be ready to move back to hot stove. Only when all popping stops, remove lid.

Monica Welch3 years ago

Sunny3 years ago

Excellent. Roast beets only. I prepared over two days: Day 1 made dressing and refrigerated overnight Roast beets (don’t boil or steam!) Day 2 Removed beet peel and sliced. Roasted mustard seeds (didn’t have nigella, maybe use cumin seeds next time) Assemble

Joyce3 years ago

Didn’t have horseradish (a crying shame, I know) and otherwise made it as written, boiling the beets in salty water. Loved the seedy seeds! Thanks for the beets recipe! (Beets are a couple’s secret love with us for 40 years.)

Cara4 years ago

Es4 years ago

Delicious and gorgeous. I used brown mustard seeds and prepared horseradish. I will go out of my way this summer to get yellow beets to do this over and over.

CathleenMGC4 years ago

soooo good! We just happened to have some horseradish picked from the garden this afternoon. Delightful!

aliza4 years ago

I love you my Aliza Bear!

Jennifer4 years ago

I love this recipe, although I skip the nigella seeds and use prepared horseradish instead of fresh. But David, what's the purpose of toasting the mustard seeds? They pop all over the stovetop (and me!) and I'm wondering if I could just skip this step?

CathleenMGC4 years ago

take the pan with the seeds off the heat as soon as they start to pop. They shouldn't end up anywhere - I think you just heated them too long.

Ali Litts5 years ago

I dug out some horseradish roots for this. They taste really strong on their own but when added to this, they mellowed. I kept some of this around for a couple of days in the fridge coated with the dressing, which has acid that helps preserve it, and it was even better.

RMH6 years ago

Excellent - only deviation from the recipe was that I used prepared horseradish. Dressing was amazing - held a bit back for the roasted chicken we made alongside the beets. Unbelievably good. Will definitely incorporate into regular rotation.

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