An aromatic affair in Oia

Passport & Plate - Simple Mediterranean Rosemary Beets

Greece | Tuesday, February 24, 2015 | 1 photos

Ingredients
2-3 lb fresh Beets
Olive oil
1 c balsamic vinegar
1/4 c honey
Fresh rosemary
Fresh, crumbling high-salt cheese (feta)

 

How to prepare this recipe
Boil beets until tender. Slice into quarters, toss in oil. Heat grill on medium-high and grill beets until lightly charred. Drop a few sprigs of rosemary into the fire and enclose the smoke to infuse the beets slightly. Stir honey into vinegar and reduce to syrup and toss with beets, then sprinkle feta on top. Char a few sprigs of rosemary, chop finely, and sprinkle over beets and cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste.

 

The story behind this recipe
Back in 2009, long before I was writing professionally about food, I went on a trip to Greece and fell in love with fresh, simple vegetables in a way I had never experienced before. There are few places on Earth that have such a subtle and ever-present scent as Oia, Greece: the deep saline blue of the ocean, borne on every breeze. Every bite that you take contains a little whisper of the ocean, and when you return home, the stagnant Midwestern air in Indianapolis, Indiana just doesn't have quite the same freshness. It's that little something, the cliched je ne sais quoi, that keeps you longing for the road. To recreate it, I charred the rosemary before adding it to the beets to give a third, aromatic dimension to this simple summer dish. Before setting foot in the country, I thought of beets as a kind of canned monstrosity trotted out during Thanksgiving to give us something to talk about other than political disagreements. Now this simple recipe is a go-to for a satisfying balance of acid, sweetness and salt with an extra kick of that charred rosemary scent.