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These beets are poached in a vinegary brine and then smoked until semi-dehydrated. They take on a rich dark color, with mysterious smokey notes, a pleasant pickle-ness, and a chewy candy consistency.
Now, you might be thinking, what on earth would I do with these? Well… you could put them in a salad with goat cheese or feta and they wouldn’t bleed all over everything and turn the cheese pink (I hate it when that happens). Or you might mince them real fine and mix them with capers, lemon zest, onion, olive oil and herbs and serve as a “beet tartare” appetizer to amuse and surprise your dinner guests.
It’s been a long time since I’ve stumbled upon a new cooking technique that really got me excited until I stumbled upon “demi-dehydrated” things in the The NoMad Cookbook.
This is a beautiful cookbook from The NoMad Restaurant and Hotel in New York City. I was given this book as a Christmas gift right around the time I had my first child and decided to open a restaurant. This is to say I was given this book right around the time that I stopped reading books. This discreet black tome of a book sat unopened on my shelves for years until the other day when I picked it up for the first time and started reading recipes. Several of the recipes call for demi-dehydrated fruits and vegetables, and it was like a whole world of new culinary possibilities suddenly popped into my mind.
The NoMad’s Process for Demi-Dehydrating
- Cook the ingredient in a vinegary liquid in a sous vide bag set in boiling water.
- Shock the ingredient in an ice bath, while still sealed in the bag
- Remove the ingredient from its liquid and dry in the oven at 200 F for several hours until dry and shriveled.
- Cool and store in an airtight container until ready to use.
I don’t have sous vide bags at home and I have a feeling many of my readers don’t either. I fiddled with the process to make it more user-friendly for home cooks and then I thought: “Hey if I’m going to dry this at 200 F for hours, why not do it on my Traeger smoker and make these even more interesting?” I was very pleased with the result. If you don’t have a smoker, you could make these in the oven which is how the pros do it at The NoMad.
Home Cooks Guide Process for Demi-Dehydrating
- Simmer the ingredient in a vinegary liquid.
- Transfer to a ziplock bag with some of the liquid. Submerge this partially sealed ziplock into the ice water up to the zipper seal to push out any air. Finish sealing the bag. Be careful not to let water into the bag.
- Once cooled, remove the ingredient from its liquid and dry in the smoker (or oven) at 200 F for several hours until dry and shriveled.
- Cool and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Demi-Dehydrated Beets on the Smoker
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 3 1/2 hours
- Total Time: 0 hours
- Yield: 10 servings 1x
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Oven/ Smoker
- Cuisine: New American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These partially dehydrated smoked beets have a funky concentrated flavor, and a candy-like texture. Use them for salads and garnishes. The best part – they wont bleed all over your plate and make a mess of your presentation.
Ingredients
2 1/2 lbs beets (about 5 large ones)
8 cups white vinegar (or red wine vinegar)
3 cups water
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup peppercorns
1 bunch dill
Instructions
Combine all ingredients except the beets in a pot that will fit the beets tightly. Bring to a boil and dissolve the sugar and salt. Add the beets, cover and simmer on low for 30-90 minutes depending on the size until the beets are fork tender.
Transfer the beets to a large ziplock bag, add a couple ladlefuls of the cooking liquid and submerge the bag in ice water. Keeping the zipper part out, open a corner, push the rest of the bag under the water to push out the air, and reseal.
When the beets are cooled, peel them and break them into irregular 1 inch pieces by hand.
Preheat your Traeger, or another smoker (or oven) to 200 F (see note below).
Lay the beets out on a sheet of tinfoil. Transfer to the smoker (or oven) and poke holes in the tinfoil to allow the smoke to penetrate it. Cook at 200 for 3 1/2 hours or until the beets are smokey, and dry but not hard.
Notes
SMOKER TEMPS: Some smokers, like my Traeger, have a temperature setting of 180 F and 225 F so I spend half the time at 180 F and the other half at 225 F for an average temperature of 200 F.
METHOD VARIATION: If you have heat-proof vacuum seal bags/ sous vide bags, go ahead and scale the brine ingredients by 1/4 and cook the beets with the liquid in the sous vide bags.
YOU WILL HAVE EXTRA BRINE: This recipe (without sous vide bags) will result in a lot of extra vinegar solution. You could save this for your next batch of demi-dehydrated beets or use it to pickle carrots, little tokyo turnips, onions, cauliflower, or anything else you want that would look nice with a pink hue added.
These look delicious! Do you peel the beets before cooking them?
Thanks Biana. Peel them after cooking them.
What a great way to use beetroot. I can’t wait to try these.
Oh wow! This looks interesting and so delicious! Excited to give this a try!
I’ve been dehydrating food for a long time and never have done demi-dehydrated. Thank you for the idea!
What a creative and unique idea! I need to check out that smoker and try this!