Pickled Beets Recipe INGREDIENTS 1 bunch (4 or 5) beets 1/4 cup cider vinegar 1 Tbsp sugar 1 Tbsp olive oil 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard Salt and pepper METHOD 1 Remove greens from beets, save for future use (see beet greens recipe). Cut beets to uniform sizes so they will cook evenly. Steam or boil around 30 minutes or until done. (Alternatively, you can roast them by wrapping them whole in foil and cooking them in a 350°F oven for about an hour.) A fork easily inserted into the beet will tell you if the beets are done or not. 2 Drain the beets, rinsing them in cold water. Use your fingers to slip the peels off of the beets. The peels should come off easily. Discard the peels. Slice the beets. 3 Make the vinaigrette by combining the cider vinegar, sugar, olive oil, and dry mustard. Whisk ingredients together with a fork. The dry mustard will help to emulsify the vinaigrette. Adjust to taste. Add salt and pepper to taste. Combine beets and vinaigrette in a bowl and allow to marinate for a half hour at room temperature. Serves four.

Pumpkin Muffins

Easy
Ready in 45 mins

Ingredients
Serves: 12
1 small sugar pumpkin, seeded
375g plain flour
400g caster sugar
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon salt
160ml vegetable oil
3 eggs

Preparation method

Prep: 20 mins |Cook: 25 mins
1. Preheat oven to 180 C / Gas 4. Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin cases.

2. Split pumpkin in half. Remove seeds and strings. Place on baking tray, cut side down. Cover with foil and bake in preheated oven until tender, about 90 minutes. Scoop out pumpkin and puree in blender. Weigh out 500g of pumpkin puree; set aside.

3. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, bicarb, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together the 500g pumpkin puree, vegetable oil and eggs. Stir pumpkin mixture into flour mixture until smooth. Scoop muffin mixture into prepared muffin cups.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.