Roasted Beets

I picked up some beets at the farmer's market a few days ago, I wanted to do something a little different with them. I like fresh Beets roasted on a salad or cooked in an orange reduction until they are tender and full of that earthy autumn flavor that they carry. This time I made them in a salt dome. Working with a salt dome is kind of fun, like building a sandcastle around your food.

To make this you will need:

3 medium Beets

1 1/2 cup of Kosher Salt

2 TBLS Horseradish

1 TBLS Grated Orange Peel

1 TBLS Chopped Fresh Thyme

a little fresh orange juice I squeezed 1/2 the orange into the mixture

1 Egg White

Pre heat your oven to 425 f, then wash and trim the beets really well (leaving the skin on) and set them aside while you mix the rest of the ingredients together on a bowl, it should be about the consistency of wet sand. using about a Tablespoon of salt for each pile put 3 piles of salt on a baking sheet. To make the salt dome grab a handful of the salt mixture and pack it around your first beet like a snowball it should be about 1/4 of an inch thick and cover the entire vegetable. when it is done set it on one if your salt piles then repeat the process two more times. Put the pan in the oven and let it cook for about an hour and 15 minutes. The salt dome quickly dries out and becomes a mini oven around the Beets locking in moisture while gently infusing them with the flavors of Orange, Thyme, and Horseradish.

While these are baking make you can make the sauce to drizzle over them for this I used

1/4 cup Low Fat Yogurt

2 tsp horseradish

A splash of red wine (to make a pinkish color)

The juice from the other half of the orange I used earlier

Mix it all until smooth and set aside until you are ready

After the Beets have cooked for their allotted time take them out of the oven and let them cool for about 15-20 minutes (depending on how calloused your hands are) until they are cool enough to handle. At this point they look like a cross between the eggs from "Alien" and the pods from "Cocoon." Once they are cool enough to handle crack open the salt dome and there they are! Peel the Beets and slice them up, drizzle them with a little yogurt sauce and serve them hot or a room temperature.