Vinaigrettik with a pickle!

Salat Vinaigrette-- something I was very skeptical of as a child. I did not like beets. They were red and squirmy!

But then I grew up, and now, here I am, recreating recipes from memory (and a few google searches just to make sure I had the basics down).

Let me break it down for you:

4 small beets
4 small potatoes (I think I had yukon gold? They were buttery and sweet and delicious.)
1 pickle (I used a persian cucumber I pickled myself. See recipe below)
1/2 med red onion
approx 1 tbsp olive oil
approx 1/2 tbsp chopped dill

Steam your beets and potatoes. Dice them up into semi-small pieces. Usually smaller is better, but it depends on your liking level of laziness.
Toss them into a bowl.
Add in diced pickle.
Dice the onion, and throw that in.
Add the olive oil and chopped dill, and mix everything together gently. It will all be pink! This includes your hands, if that's what you like to mix gently with. Be careful not to mush when you mix.



Pickles! (And pickled tomatoes!)

These were so unbelievably easy. Everything is surprising me so well!

I based my attempt on this

What I used:
6tbsp apple cider vinegar (as per my friend Maddy's recommendation)
3c water
3tbsp salt
many cloves of garlic
lots of fresh dill
tomatoes and cucumbers

Dissolve together the water, vinegar, and salt. Then throw in the dill and garlic. Then lower in your tomatoes. Splish splash. After a few days in the refrigerator, taste one! You will note that the tomatoes have cracks in them. Gorgeous. I can't imagine anything more beautiful, frankly. But beware--they spurt! All over your keyboard, in fact.

Then, when the brine is tomato-free, you can slice up some cucumbers and throw them in to pickle. A few days later, you have perfect Vinaigrette-making material.



I really liked the apple cider vinegar note of the pickles when in the Vinaigrette. The salad is a bit sweet because of the beets, so my sweeter potatoes and pickles seemed to mesh really well. I don't want to toot my own horn, but that may have been my favorite Salat Vinaigrette, of ever. That may also be because I haven't had any in a long time..

Maybe someday soon I'll make Salat Olivier for you too!

Til then, byebye

-Anna