These beetroot tops are perfect as a light lunch or a fancy side dish.

This recipe might seem adventurous, but it is a favourite when beetroot tops are beautifully fresh. It is becoming more common to find fresh bunches of beetroot for sale, or you might be lucky enough to be growing beetroot in the garden or allotment. Beetroot tops need little cooking so this is a quick dish to make.

Feeds 1-2 people (as light lunch)

Preparation and cooking takes less than 10 minutes

Method

1. Cut the beetroot tops away from the beetroot roots a couple of cm above the root so you have a large bunch of lovely stalks and leaves. Wash the stalks and leaves to remove any soil or sand.
2. Coarse cut the stalks and leaves around half to one cm thickness. The stalks are best cut half a cm and the leaves can be cut a bit wider.
3. Slice thinly the clove of garlic and the section of chilli pepper. If you don’t particularly like garlic you can first halve the clove and remove the inner heart, because that is where most of the pungency comes from, then slice the outer section thinly. The thinner you can slice, the more it melts away in the dish.
4. Throw the garlic and chilli into a large frying pan with some extra virgin olive oil. Start on low heat so as not to get the oil too hot or brown the garlic. After half a minute, throw in the shredded beetroot stalks. You can now raise the heat and stir. After a couple of minutes, it will be time to throw in the shredded beetroot leaves. Keep stirring as you only really want to wilt the leaves – this might only take a minute. It should still seem nice and fresh.
5. Plate up and drizzle a little extra extra virgin olive oil on top if you want. Sprinkle a few sunflower seeds (or seeds of your choice) over to finish the look.

Tips

1. Did you know that you can also substitute beetroot leaves for spinach in most recipes too?
2. For the light lunch option we suggest a little fresh dark sourdough bread on the side.