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Beetroot marinade as in the dining room

Beet Marinade — Cafeteria Style

A quick, no-fuss little side for dinner! This beet marinade, just like the one from an old-school cafeteria, works as both a warm side dish and a cold salad. It takes just a handful of ingredients, and if you cook or roast the beets ahead of time, the whole thing comes together in minutes.

Ropotushka

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Beets

500

Onion

Garlic

Tomato paste

Salt

Sugar (to taste)

0.5

Vinegar (distilled white)

Vegetable oil

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 11 % 2 g

Fats 28 % 5 g

Carbohydrates 61 % 11 g

85 kcal

GI: 33 / 0 / 67

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you make cafeteria-style beet marinade? Gather all your ingredients. It's best to boil or roast the beets ahead of time — they'll have a chance to cool, which makes them easier to handle. Cook the beets however you like: in the oven, microwave, or steamer, or just boil them like I do. Use a medium or large onion.
Step 2:

Scrub the dirt off the beets, put them in a deep pot, and cover with water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then cook covered over medium heat for an hour after it comes to a boil. Don't trim the root tails, so the juice doesn't leak out and the beets keep their flavor. Drain the hot water and cover with cold. Let sit at least 15 minutes — this finishes cooking the beets and cools them faster.
Step 3:

Peel the onion, rinse it, and cut it into small dice. Heat a deep, heavy-bottomed skillet, carefully pour in the vegetable oil so you don't get splashed, and add the chopped onion. Cook over medium heat, stirring now and then, until soft. It took me about 3 minutes.
Step 4:

Peel, rinse, and mince the garlic however you like — I chopped it with a knife. Add the tomato paste and garlic to the onion, stir, and cook for another 2–3 minutes over medium heat. Adjust the amount of tomato paste to taste; I used just one spoonful because mine was quite concentrated.
Step 5:

Peel the beets, grate them on the coarse side of a grater, and add them to the skillet.
Step 6:

Cook, stirring, for another 2–3 minutes.
Step 7:

Take off the heat and add salt, sugar, and vinegar to taste.

You can serve the beet marinade cold or warm — it's up to you. I like it cold best.
Instead of sugar, you can use a heat-stable sweetener.
Use an oil with a high smoke point for frying! All oils are only healthy up to a certain temperature — the smoke point — beyond which the oil starts to burn and forms toxic compounds, including carcinogens. Unrefined oils, with rare exceptions, have a low smoke point; they contain a lot of unfiltered organic particles that burn quickly. Refined oils stand up to heat better and have a higher smoke point. If you're cooking in the oven, in a skillet, or on the grill, make sure to use an oil with a high smoke point. The most common ones are refined sunflower, olive, and grapeseed oils.
You can replace the tomato paste in this recipe with canned tomatoes in their own juice, fresh tomatoes, or ketchup.