Lime Roasted Beets and Mushroom Fonio
vegetarian, vegan option, gluten free // serves 4-6
Lime roasted beets, mushroom fonio, avocado cilantro lime crema. This is the first dish in my 2021 Series of Five Sustainable Dishes, a project supported by the Stanford Office of the Vice President for the Arts. The series is a personal exploration of the various meanings of “sustainable food”. My goal with this series is to consider some angles from which food and food products can be considered good for the environment.
Here, whole beets are slow-roasted in a tinfoil packet with whole lime and thyme sprigs. Mushroom fonio is served atop a rich mushroom purée. This dish is vegetarian, but can be made vegan with a few substitutes. Recipe for the mushroom fonio is a slight modification of Yolélé Foods Fonio Mushroom Risotto.
In the case of this dish, sustainability can be taken to mean a number of things:
1. I used rescued produce in this dish. Rescued produce refers to “ugly” or surplus produce saved from landfill—perfectly usable vegetables that weren’t good enough for supermarket shelves and would not have made it to table if they hadn’t been rescued. Food recovery programs like Misfits Markets operate at multiple nodes across the supply chain so that produce that would have gone to waste can instead be used to meaningfully reduce hunger.
2. This is a vegetarian dish. A vegetarian diet has a lower “foodprint” (1.7 tons CO2 per person per year) than the average omnivorous diet (2.5), and half of that of a meat-loving diet (3.3). For comparison, a vegan diet falls at around 1.5, while a no-beef diet falls at 1.9. Keep in mind that CO2 emissions are just one part of a larger picture in measuring the impact of food on the environment.
Finally, it can mean 3. supporting biodiverse food products and the diverse agroecological systems that produce them. One of the stars of this dish is fonio, a highly nutritious and versatile grain from West Africa, which is highly underutilized in the global grain trade and in diets outside of Africa. I was introduced to fonio through the brand Yolélé in a talk by Senegal-raised chef and founder Pierre Thiam. From their website, “Yolélé was founded in 2017 to create economic opportunity for smallholder farming communities; to support biodiverse, regenerative, and resilient food systems; and to share Africa’s ingredients and cuisines with the world.” In a food system dominated by rice, wheat, and corn monocultures, purchasing and consuming culturally and nutritionally rich foods like fonio and supporting small BIPOC-owned businesses like Yolélé can make a real difference.
Product spotlight:
Misfits Market: beets
Yolélé Foods: fonio
Gourmet Sweet Botanicals: beet, amaranth, magenta spinach, radish ruby, hearts on fire, shiso red
Blue Moon Acres: opal basil, mizuna)
what you need:
for the lime roasted beets:
3 medium beets, whole and unpeeled
⅓ cup vegetable stock. homemade, unsalted vegetable stock is best.
1 lime, juiced, saving the peels
2 sprigs thyme
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
sea salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
for the mushroom fonio:
for the mushroom purée:
1 cup cremini mushrooms, roughly chopped
¼ cup vegetable stock. homemade, unsalted vegetable stock is best.
¼ cup heavy cream or creamy plant milk, like cashew
½ cup grated parmesan or plant-based parmesan substitute (or omit and add a touch of truffle oil instead)
2 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp kosher salt, or to taste
for the foniotto:
2 cups uncooked Yolélé fonio
4 cups vegetable stock. homemade, unsalted vegetable stock is best.
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large shallot, minced
2 cups assorted mushrooms, destemmed and thinly sliced. I like to use a blend of shiitake, maitake, and oyster.
⅓ cup dry white wine
½ cup grated parmesan or plant-based parmesan substitute (or omit and add a touch of truffle oil instead)
3 sprigs thyme
⅓ cup toasted pine nuts
for the avocado cilantro lime crema:
½ cup whole milk greek yoghurt, sour cream, or plant-based yoghurt/sour cream substitute
½ avocado, peeled and pitted
2 tbsp olive oil
¼ cup water
½ cup green onion, chopped
¼ cup cilantro leaves
2 cloves garlic, chopped
juice of 1 lime
½ tsp kosher salt
optional but highly recommended:
microgreens: micro beet, amaranth, magenta spinach, radish ruby, hearts on fire, shiso red, opal basil, mizuna
how to make it:
to make the lime roasted beets:
preheat oven to 275 F.
scrub the beets well.
in a medium bowl, toss the beets, vegetable stock, lime juice and peels, and thyme sprigs.
using tinfoil, wrap the beets and the contents of the bowl in a packet. the packet should have some room inside for the beets to steam, but be tightly sealed.
place the packet on a sheet pan and transfer into the oven. cook for 45 to 70 minutes, or until beets are fork-tender. when done, allow beets to cool in the bag. this will help the skins loosen up for peeling.
after the beets have cooled, use a paring knife (both the cutting edge and the blunt spine) to peel the beets.
cut the beets into wedges. toss with sherry vinegar, sea salt, and ground pepper. set aside.
to make the mushroom fonio:
see Yolélé Food’s recipe for Fonio Mushroom Risotto. simply omit the peas and the scallions. transfer the mushroom purée into a squeeze bottle, keep fonio and purée warm, and wait to assemble.
to make the avocado cilantro lime crema:
add all ingredients to a high speed blender or food processor and process until smooth.
transfer contents into a squeeze bottle.
