An hour and a half in the oven, wrapped in a crust of coarse salt. It comes out tasting of root vegetable rather than pickling jar — and asks almost no work in return.
Pre-cooked beetroot from a vacuum pack tastes almost always the same: of vinegar, and of little else. The salt crust makes something different of it. The root cooks in its own steam, under a crust that traps the aroma rather than leaching it out.
The effort is surprisingly small. Mix salt and egg white, wrap, into the oven — the rest happens on its own.
A side for 4, or a cold salad the next day with some goat's cheese.
Heat the oven to 200 °C conventional. Line a tray with baking paper.
Mix the coarse salt with the egg whites and picked thyme leaves into a damp, mouldable, sand-like mass.
Wrap the beetroot unpeeled and unwashed completely in the salt mass, leaving no spot exposed. Set on the tray.
The soil on the skin does not matter — it comes off with the peel anyway.
Bake for 90 minutes. The largest one is done when a knife slides in without resistance.
Break off the salt crust with a blunt knife. Peel the beetroot while still warm — that is when the skin comes away most easily. Cut into wedges and dress with olive oil and a little lemon juice.
Beetroot stains come off hands better with lemon juice and salt than with soap alone.
