Nura’s recipe

A colorful combination of red, white and green. Fresh mint makes this salad even more colorful and tasty.

Servings: About 4

Ingredients

Instructions

Slice beets into 1/4 inch slices, or dice. Stir yogurt until smooth, and pour on top of the beets. Sprinkle with the mint. Serve cold. 

Recipe © Nura Amerson 1991

Layli’s Reflections

The first time I recall having this beet salad was at Pittsburgh’s Conflict Kitchen, which featured the cuisine of countries that the United States was in conflict with. At the time of my visit, Iran was the featured country. I love the idea of using food, the easiest entry point into cross-cultural encounters, to humanize nations that are routinely demonized by U.S. politics and media.

When making my mom’s version, instead of layering the yogurt and beets, I mixed them together so that the yogurt would absorb some of the beets’ vibrant color. As you can see, the result was a pink salad. My husband thought it was a strawberry cream dessert before I clarified that nope, it is a savory salad!

Back to Katayoon’s Kitchen