Beetroot and sorrel salad with yoghurt and nigela seeds

Serves 4

Beetroots are great for barbecues and buffets, and they also lend themselves to being gently spiced up, or in this case herbed and spiced. If you shop at farmers' markets, you will come across lots of varieties of beetroots these days as farmers are reviving the old coloured varieties. Try to buy them with the leaves, as you can blanch the leaves as I've done here and then toss them in with the beets. This is the dish I cooked with Ian Nelson's yellow beets, although you could use a mixture of yellows and reds, or just reds if you prefer.

700-800g young yellow beetroots, or any other colours with their leaves
A handful of small silver sorrel or sorrel leaves
3-4tbsp of thick Greek yoghurt
1tsp nigela (onion) seeds
4-5tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2tbsp white wine or cider vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Remove the leaves from the beetroot and give them a good wash. Cook the beets in their skins in boiling salted water for about an hour or until tender. Cook the leaves in fresh boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes until just tender, then drain. Once the beetroots are cool enough to handle, peel them by rubbing the skin off with your fingers, then cut them into quarters, depending on their size. Mix with the leaves.

Toss the beetroots and leaves with the vinegar and olive oil and season well. Arrange in a bowl and scatter or mix in the sorrel leaves. Then spoon the yoghurt on top, scattered with the nigela seeds.