Brown bag beets are a modern way to cook en papillote, re-using a paper bag that you buy your veges in. Serve with kale and walnut pesto upon a crispy potato rosti and you have a sharing platter rustic lunch, or individually portioned tasty brunch.
Recipe and photography Miggs McTaylor
Each element can be prepared separately ahead of time or I would suggest preparing in this order:
- Wash measure and chop all ingredients
- Brown bag beets in oven
- Put potatoes on stove to boil
- Make pesto
- Make rosti
Serves 4-6
Brown bag roasted beets
- 500g beetroot peeled and wedged into bite-size pieces
- 3-5 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 lemon thinly sliced
- 2-3 sprigs of thyme
- olive oil
What to do
- Set the oven to 200ºC
- Put all ingredients into a sturdy paper bag, shake to coat beetroot, roll the top of the bag and put in the middle of the oven to roast 40-50 minutes depending on the size of pieces.
- Compost paper bag
Potato rosti
- 700-800g agria potatoes
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Sea salt and ground white pepper
What to do
- Wash potatoes (peel if desired), cut in half if they are large
- Put potatoes into a pot of salted water, bring to the boil and simmer until the potatoes are half cooked
- Drain and grate into a bowl and season with sea salt and pepper. Press potato together so it makes a large ball (wet hands help as the starches make it sticky)
- Heat olive oil in a heavy-based 23cm frypan. Use a spatula to press the potato down to make a large rosti
- Cook for about 15 minutes or until the base is golden. Turn over to finish cooking — if preparing ahead, take it off the stove. Leave it in the pan and return to the oven for 15-20 minutes before serving.
Kale and Walnut Pesto
- 60g / 1/2 cup toasted walnuts
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 150g / approx 2 cups kale stems removed
- zest and juice of a lemon
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup water
- sea salt and pepper to taste
What to do
- Roughly chop kale, put in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Drain when soft (about 1-2 minutes)
- Put kale and walnuts into a food processor and pulse until chopped. Add remaining ingredients and blitz
- Season to taste, adding more of any ingredients to suit your palate
