What's Standing Between Me and the Perfect Beet Salad?
My family adores beets and so do I. A beet salad can be not only chunky and down-home, but also paper-thin and elegant. I love the former, but have never made the latter. And the only thing standing between me and that elegant salad is a mandoline.
Lacking a professional chef's knife skills, I have had my eye on a mandoline for a long time, though I've probably only really needed it occasionally. But to turn potatoes into chips, cabbage into slaw or tomatoes into Caprese, it would be the bomb.
I've got a birthday on the horizon, and I'm making a list of the kitchen tools I've lived without for just too long. Is a mandoline one of them?
If you have one, how often do you use it? What do you use it for? And which one is the best to buy? My husband needs to know!
--Tracy Schneider
Cindy Wambeam on March 10, 2010 at 11:44 AM
I never thought about using mine for beet salad, but now that's going to be tried out soon. I think using the mandoline for this would be great for one of those stacked beet appetizers like those at restaurants -- the kind that have mascarpone or almond butter in between the beets. Yum!
I use my mandoline most often for paper thin slices of fennel, sometimes apple, sometimes the two together (when I'm making fennel-apple salad). I recently posted my recipe for that on my little blog:
http://www.meltingteapot.com/blog5.php/2010/02/23/fresh-fennel-aamp-dry-riesling
I've also used it to make really really thin slices of lemon, which can then be used to wrap fish or shrimp before baking...to put on top of sushi. . . or tuck into cucumber sandwiches with tea. Oh, and that reminds me, cucumbers! I love thin shavings of cucumbers, soaked in vinegar and herbs, to sit on the table in the summer. Use an Asian vinegar and some hot pepper sauce, and you've got that Chinese restaurant cucumber salad. Or, sprinkle it with malt vinegar, sea salt, and pepper -- use this as a fish taco topping.
I've gone on long enough to have made myself hungry. It must be time to make myself some lunch! :)
HopeSew on March 11, 2010 at 05:44 AM
Wow, Cindy really puts her mandoline to work! That's great. It must be how some restaurants get their paper-thin slices of apple to adorn their desserts. Do you think it would be good for slicing ginger to make gari (the Japanese pickled ginger)?
Delishhh on March 11, 2010 at 09:47 AM
I love beets, and i was looking for new beet recipes as i came across your post. Ohh you don't need a mandoline to make some great salads, but i am sure they make it easier. Once you get your mandoline let me know what you make. I will be posting a few beet recipes myself but here is delicious Pickled Red Beets: http://delishhh.com/?p=358
Tracy Schneider on March 11, 2010 at 10:28 AM
Cindy, thanks for all of your great suggestions. Your fennel beet salad looks delicious, and I'll definitely give it a try once my mandoline is in-hand. I love your ideas for lemons and cucumbers too! HopeSew is right, you really put your mandoline to work!
HopeSew, it seems to me that the mandoline would be the perfect way to slice ginger. Has anyone tried it?
Delishh, your recipe for Pickled Red Beets sounds marvelous. I'll give it a try, with or without a mandoline.
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