Summer Salad of Beets, Potatoes and Eggs
(serves 6)
3 tbsps mayonnaise
6 beets, oven-roasted, peeled
12 small potatoes, steamed in their skins
10 eggs, hard-boiled, peeled
2 heads butter lettuce (in UK called “little gems), leaves separated
large handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
dressing:
6 tbsps sugar
1/3 cup canola or sunflower oil
2 tbbsps blue/black poppy seeds
2 tbsps Dijon mustard
juice of 1 lemon
plenty of fresh-ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
To assemble the salad, find a large flat platter and spread the mayonnaise across the bottom. This adds a lovely “up from the bottom as well as down from the top” surprise flavor when you spoon up the salad. Now, build six towers of the beets, sliced, and potatoes, sliced. Quarter the hard-boiled eggs and place them gently around the towers, taking care to keep the quarters together as the white and yolks are very pretty kept together. Surround with the butter lettuce leaves and sprinkle with parsley. Just before serving, shake up all dressing ingredients in a tight-covered jar. Drizzle dressing across salad and serve.
