Foraging Fox Beetroot Ketchup - Original Flavour

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Beetroot brings a brilliant sweet earthy note to the sauce. Plus, there’s something at once very British and, thanks to that deep purple, very exotic about a jar of this beetroot and chili ketchup. Onion, carrot and celery A classic base for so many sauces and stews, this is known as 'soffrito' in Italy. It gives the ketchup a lovely aromatic base. Some supermarkets now sell a frozen finely-chopped soffrito mix, if you're really in a hurry! Of all the small, edible rituals that season the day – late morning coffee and cake; green tea and fruit in the afternoon; plain, unsullied goat’s yogurt at dawn – there are few I enjoy more than our working breakfasts. Shopping done. Oven on. Camera primed. Notebooks at the ready. We then sit down to that first meal. There might be mushrooms on toast, Cumberland sausages from Mr Godfrey or cheese sandwiches, their filling dripping out on to the grill, sending out a ribbon of savoury smoke to set off the fire alarm. There’s something deeply satisfying about using up every part of the vegetable. This thirty-minute wonder makes use of the whole beetroot, including the leaves. The result? A vibrant, lightly-fragrant waste-free veggie dinner!

Peel the fresh beetroot and ginger and cut into very small cubes (preferably with silicone gloves). Take the tomatoes out of the tin and also dice them very small. The small cubes because the ketchup should later fit through a bottle opening without clogging, but still want a lumpy consistency like a salsa. The ketchup goes wonderfully with fried and grilled meat and fish, but also with cheese and grilled vegetables. These burgers get five stars for making midweek cooking a breeze – ready in 30 minutes and made with only a handful of ingredients. Peel and roughly chop the onion and garlic and mix with the remaining oil. When the beetroot has been cooking for 45 minutes, add the onion and garlic mixture to the roasting tin around the foil parcel and return to the oven. Continue cooking for a further 40 minutes or until the beetroot is tender and the onion mixture is sweet and caramelised. I am a former ketchup FIEND, and have deeply missed the tomato goodness that puts my body into a rough place. This beet ketchup is EXACTLY what I needed and I am so grateful!!!Garlic I really recommend using fresh garlic cloves here if you can, they add such a lovely flavour to the finished ketchup. But if course if you don't have any to hand you could use ready-chopped garlic from a jar or tube instead. Whichever way you go, just put the beets - whole with skin, or peeled and chopped - onto a few layers of foil, along with the onions and garlic. Ground cumin I love the combination of cumin and beetroot, and it adds a lovely note to this ketchup. By all means experiment with other spices too to make this recipe your own. This ochre, ginger and chilli spiced ketchup will darken slightly in the fridge, but you can keep it for up to a week in a jar, tightly sealed. Cook the vegetables for 6–8 minutes until beginning to soften, then add the crushed spices and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Alternatively, you can scrub the beets clean, and cut the ends off. Roast them whole - with the onions and garlic. I’ve used it on its own with crispy roasted potatoes and made a gorgeous pad Thai inspired dish using the ketchup as part of the sauce.

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We agreed this one looked pretty revolting and it was our least favourite in terms of taste. Perhaps it would be better as a sauce than a dip. Rhubarb Kids will love the colour of them, adults will love the taste of them. These pretty ‘n’ pink beetroot-spiked blinis are perfect for feeding a crowd. We’ve topped them with horseradish and a mixture of smoked salmon and soft-boiled quail eggs but feel free to top them with whatever you fancy. Or for bigger quantities, I will get out my Magimix Pro Food Processor* which has three different sized bowls for any size job. (This one was a gift for review from Magimix some years ago, but I’m a big fan and haven’t ever been paid to say so!)