A few days ago I bought a bunch of big, beautiful beets with the purpose of roasting them at some point during the week and eating them in a salad of some kind. But the roasting never happened, because once the temp hit 80 degrees the idea of wrapping the beets in foil and cranking up the stove seemed far from appealing. Why not eat them raw? I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten them uncooked but I knew this was what they were meant for during these waning days of spring: a quick shredding in the food processor (you could also use a grater and some elbow grease), followed by a couple of carrots, and a sliced ripe avocado, and I had a very easy spring salad or side dish. The raw beets, when they are cut up this thin, are crunchy but not overly so, and deliciously sweet. I dressed them with a vinaigrette of lemon juice, shallots, dijon mustard, grapeseed oil and salt and pepper–but you could just do the lemon and a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and it would be just as appealing, maybe also stir in a spoonful of yogurt.
I also happened to have some leftover pasta from the night before that reminded me of a terrific lunch I had at the Stone Barns cafe last year
