Beet and sweet potato tartare is such a simple dish but makes a colourful and attractive vegan appetizer. The recipe makes the most of seasonal vegetables and lets them shine with just a simple dressing of olive oil and lemon juice. This vegan tartare recipe is so full of textures and flavours that you’ll want to make it again and again!

Beets are one of those foods that most people either love or hate. To be honest, I’ve always been somewhat indifferent. My experience of beets as a child was always out of a can, and I would imagine that most people’s aversion to beets resulted from a similar experience.

I don’t think it was the beets themselves which were disgusting, they actually taste pretty similar to fresh beets, but rather the thick, weirdly sweet and syrupy liquid in which they’re packed.

I’m not averse to experimenting with fresh beets, however. In fact, they seem to have become quite trendy recently with all the recipes for beet burgers, beet brownies and beet carpaccio appearing on the net and in vegetarian cookbooks. I’ve recently incorporated beets into this wonderful pink fresh beet pasta

Unfortunately, it seems as though the Spanish fall into the group of beet haters as it’s next to impossible to find fresh beets in supermarkets. It’s yet another one of those ingredients that I have to make a special trip to the market to get, and overpay for, before they close at 2:00 pm (really, who has time to shop at the market these days?).

Paradoxically, I’ve noticed beets on the menus of several restaurants around Barcelona over the last few weeks, and this recipe was inspired by one of them. Beets are in season now along with my favorite root vegetable: sweet potatoes and this recipe for beet and sweet potato tartare is a simple and tasty way to take advantage of these autumn vegetables.