Beet BLT Sandwich

beet blt sandwich

A couple of weeks ago, Volkswagen approached me with the following idea: borrow a VW for a couple of days, drive around somewhere cool, and track the trip using their new SmileDrive app. Since Chris and I are in the market for a new car, and Chris loves playing with new apps, we figured what the hell. Our schedule has been tight as a bug’s butt, so we opted to do a farmer’s market tour around Austin for a day. It was a ton of fun. We talked to farmers and I learned about some new vegetables (Armenian cucumbers, anyone?) and found these crazy-weird-but-good pickled blueberries by Confituras as well as some goat’s milk ricotta, some super fresh beets, elephant garlic, and some sorrel — something I’d heard of but never eaten.

Anyway, very quickly the challenge turned to what kinda food am I gonna make with this? I was inspired by a recipe I heard of recently: a BLT with beets added. Yum. I love both of those things, so, duh, yeah, Im’ma eat that. When I was vegetarian, something I’d often cook was beets fried with potatoes: “Beets and potatoes” I called it. Pretty clever. This is kind of like that, but with bread instead of potatoes and bacon instead of vegetarian. You could definitely omit the bacon, though, and it would still be outstanding. The garlic mayo spread really does nice things here and feel free to swap out the fresh basil for dill or tarragon or even cilantro. They would all be yum.

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Beet BLT Sandwich

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5 from 3 reviews

  • Author: Hilah Johnson
  • Cook Time: 10 mins
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: 2 1x

Ingredients

Scale
  • Spread:
  • 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
  • 1 large clove garlic
  • pinch of salt
  • 23 leaves fresh basil
  • Sandwich:
  • 4 slices thick bread
  • 4 slices bacon
  • 1 large beet
  • 1 thin-skinned cucumber, sliced 1/4″ thick
  • small bunch fresh sorrel (or another green, like spinach)
  • olive oil
  • salt

Instructions

  1. Make the spread:
  2. Put mayo in a small bowl.
  3. Mince garlic and add a pinch of salt to it on the cutting board. Use the flat side of your knife to smear the salt into the garlic several times, making a paste. Add garlic paste to mayo.
  4. Chiffonade the basil and add that, too. Set aside.
  5. Cook the bacon slowly over a medium heat until crispy, turning occasionally so that it cooks evenly and the fat renders out.
  6. Slice beets about 1/3″ thick (no need to peel) and heat a teaspoon of oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.
  7. Cook beets 2 minutes on one side, then turn and cover the pan. Cook another 2 minutes or until the beets are toasty and tender when you poke with a fork. Salt them and set aside.
  8. Spread the bread with your garlic mayo, top with bacon, cucumber, and fried beets.
  9. Slap another slice of bread on top and serve!

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18 Comments

  1. Sara on September 5, 2013 at 11:16 am

    Wow, this looks delish. I had no idea you could fry beets. All I’ve ever known how to do is dice them up and put them in a salad. Can’t wait to try.

    • Hilah on September 5, 2013 at 7:15 pm

      Oh yay! I’m glad to show you something new, Sara! Hope you love it.

  2. Faren on September 5, 2013 at 11:56 am

    Hi Hilah!

    I love your show. Sad that you’ll be gone for a couple of weeks. But super stoked about the new content. Hurry back now, ya hear!

    This post brought up a question: How long were you a vegetarian? Can you talk about that experience? And how you decided to become an omnivore again? Just curious.

    Thanks so much,
    Faren

    • Hilah on September 5, 2013 at 7:25 pm

      Hi Faren!

      I’ll be back regularly on Sept 24!

      This would be a great topic for a vlog, but here’s the gist: I was 17, and read “Diet for a small planet” and decided to go vegetarian. It lasted about 8 years and ultimately, I started to get bored with what I was cooking and wanted to have more things to work with in the kitchen. And then I got drunk at a Christmas party and ate a bunch of sausage and it was really, really good. And c’est la vie. 😉

      Very recently, though, I have been cutting back on meat and doing more legumes, just because it feels right. Maybe it’s cyclical…
      Thank you for writing!

      -h

  3. Victor on September 5, 2013 at 1:21 pm

    How about some potato bread Hilah? Then you will have your cleverly named “beets and potatoes” in one awesome little package.

    • Hilah on September 5, 2013 at 7:13 pm

      Genius!!! 😀 I love that idea, Victor!

  4. Great Stone Face on September 5, 2013 at 4:59 pm

    This looks great. Back to your beets ‘n’ potatoes, you could mince it up some onion and corned beef, the fry it for red flannel hash.






    • Hilah on September 5, 2013 at 7:09 pm

      Yes Yes! I’ve never made red flannel hash, but I am sure I would love it.

  5. Annie on September 5, 2013 at 8:24 pm

    Yum! I am a big fan of the BLT… well, all things bacon really. I’ve been adding avocado to my BLTs for years, but the beets are an exciting and new twist. Thanks for the great videos!

    • Hilah on September 6, 2013 at 3:13 pm

      I hope you like it, Annie! Avocado AND beets next time! 😉

  6. Erik on September 9, 2013 at 11:37 am

    Its common to find beets on burgers & sandwiches in AUS/NZ along with a side of sweet potato fries. I’d have to recomend the eggplant BLT from Beets Cafe on 5th St. (Austin,TX). Its totally vegan and quite tasty even for a dedicated carnivore like myself.

    • Hilah on September 9, 2013 at 6:42 pm

      I love beets on burgers. NZ was where I first had that, too, and I wish it were more popular here. I hadn’t heard of the Beets Cafe, Erik. Thank you for pointing me that way!

      • Erik on September 10, 2013 at 6:31 am

        You’re most welcome. The addy is: Beets Living Food Cafe, 1611 West 5th Street #165, Austin, TX http://www.beetscafe.com/ . Can’t recomend it enough.

        From their site — ELT: a delicious sprouted almond sunflower flatbread, spread with a creamy cashew dijonaise, layered with crispy spiced eggplant “bacon”, lettuce, tomato, avocado, and high-vibe sprouts, served with crispy veggie chips and kraut.

        IIRC when I was there least they had run out of veggie chips and gave me some beets instead. All in all it was a grand experience. Their Raw Reubenis pretty good too.

        • Hilah on September 10, 2013 at 10:05 am

          I will definitely check that out! Sounds great, and you’ve got me very curious about a raw Reuben, too.

  7. Amy @ What Jew Wanna Eat on September 19, 2013 at 4:12 pm

    Beets are the best! Great idea to put those suckers on a BLT. Yay!






    • Hilah on September 23, 2013 at 9:46 am

      Enjoy, Amy!

  8. Joseph on June 13, 2014 at 7:43 am

    Thanks Hilah for this introduction, I made it and my friends enjoyed it pretty well!!! Pretty easy to make!
    Thanks!!! -Joseph






    • Hilah on June 13, 2014 at 7:49 am

      Glad you enjoyed it, Joseph!

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