Fry

An American Patzaria - Creamy Beet Spread with Blue Cheese and Bacon

by:
February 24, 2010
4
3 Ratings
  • Serves 3-4
Author Notes

As a child, I never had beets at home (my father claimed allergies -- a claim about which I remain highly skeptical), but I loved beets, and I always got them in the salad bar of my favorite restaurant. My childhood salads never varied -- they always had croutons, green onions, bacon bits and blue cheese dressing with the beets. As an adult, I encountered Patzaria, the Greek yogurt-based beet salad, and I decided to combine the flavors of my childhood salad bar with the Greek appetizer in this recipe. The result is salty, sweet, smoky and entirely addictive -- it makes a great and unexpected hors d'oeuvre. —Savour

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 2 medium beets
  • 1 cup nonfat Greek style yogurt
  • 1.5 ounces blue cheese, finely crumbled
  • 2 pieces bacon
  • 1 tablespoon chives, finely minced
  • 3 pieces pita bread, lightly toasted
Directions
  1. Scrub the beets, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, enclose in a foil packet and roast at 350 degrees for 40 minutes to an hour, or until tender. Let cool and chop into a fine dice.
  2. Fry the bacon until crisp. Let cool, and chop finely.
  3. Combine the yogurt and the blue cheese in a small bowl and mash with a fork until the cheese in incorporated into the yogurt.
  4. Add the chopped beets, bacon and the chives. Mix thoroughly until the entire mixture is a rather alarming magenta hue (this actually helps convince 3 year old girls to eat it, believe it or not). The mixture may be covered and stored in the refrigerator right away, or eaten immediately.
  5. Serve with toasted pita triangles. Enjoy.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • NuM NuM
    NuM NuM
  • Olga of Mango & Tomato
    Olga of Mango & Tomato
  • testkitchenette
    testkitchenette
  • TheWimpyVegetarian
    TheWimpyVegetarian
  • lastnightsdinner
    lastnightsdinner
I'm a Los Angeles based home cook with a full time job and 2 young kids, so my recipes tend to be accessible to busy people. I firmly believe that anyone can cook good, everyday meals from scratch with sufficient tools and encouragement, and I try to create meals that are delicious, wholesome and not too intimidating. Most of my favorite recipes tend to be twists on a classic dish that makes it new and exciting.

7 Reviews

NuM N. January 24, 2011
made this today and it was amazing. Freakishly scary looking, but so tasty!!! Here's a link to my blog if you want to see it.

http://lisasnumnum.blogspot.com/2011/01/creamy-beet-spread-with-blue-cheese-and.html
 
Olga O. January 20, 2011
growing up in Russia we made a similar dish: roasted and grated beets combined with mayonnaise (of course!), toasted walnuts, dried prunes and minced garlic.
 
adamnsvetcooking January 17, 2011
I love beets so this is something I will be making!
 
testkitchenette September 27, 2010
I cannot wait to try this in salad form mixed with quinoa.
 
TheWimpyVegetarian February 27, 2010
Major yum!! This sounds wonderful!
 
lastnightsdinner February 24, 2010
Wow - this sounds fabulous.
 
EmilyNunn February 24, 2010
this looks very good!