Sadly I have nearly come to the end of my home-grown beetroot! I cooked a few of my precious crop the other day and left them peeled, chopped 
and ready to go in the fridge. Lunch arrived so I chucked in some other cooked veggies left over from a couple of meals, and in a tic whipped up a lovely autumn salad with lots of flavour. Salads for me need to have a great dressing and this one, combining the acidic caramel tones of pomegranate molasses with lemony olive oil was spot on.My crush on Carluccio’s lemon oil emerged recently having been given a bottle as part of a review for their Woking restaurant where I had a brilliant breakfast a few weeks ago. Even though my blog is all about independents occasionally I dabble in a chain, and there are a few good ones around such as Côte too.
Carluccio’s has a great food shop in each of their restaurants and sell some great products such as gluten-free spaghetti (one of the best I have ever tried). They have oils, dried mushrooms, pasta, sauces and some fresh products and patisserie. I also spied bottles of Vin Santo which served with a few Cantucci biscuits makes a wonderful effortless dessert.
The vegetables to compliment the beetroot used in this salad can be swapped and substituted depending on availability and I would make this with corn, fine green beans or baby runners too. I served this with a dollop of fat free Greek Yogurt sprinkled with sumac and a little of the lemon oil.
Salad
5 medium cooked beetroot peeled and roughly chopped
150g cooked broad beans
150g cooked tenderstem broccoli, chopped
2-3 fresh nasturtium flowers (optional)
Dressing
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
1 tablespoon fresh chopped chives (or other fresh herbs such as mint)
1 dessertspoon lemon olive oil
1 dessertspoon red wine vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Place the vegetables together in a mixing bowl and (apart from the flowers). Spoon the dressing ingredients straight on the salad and mix well. Place on a serving dish and decorate with flowers if you have them. If I was to serve this in the evening I would add a few finely chopped salad onions and a clove of crushed smoked garlic.
