This beet carpaccio turns raw beets into a light, colorful appetizer with orange, grapefruit, roasted pistachios, fresh dill, and a simple lime and olive oil dressing.
The key is slicing the beets paper-thin. A thick piece of raw beet can be tough and aggressively crunchy, but shave that same beet on a mandoline and it becomes crisp, delicate, and surprisingly refreshing.
I use both golden and Chioggia beets here for their flavor and color. Combined with three different kinds of citrus and crunchy pistachios, they make a raw beet salad that looks far more elaborate than the amount of work involved.
Why Raw Beets Work
One of the most useful things to understand about preparing vegetables is how much the way you cut them can change the way you experience them.
A mandoline produces the thin, consistent slices that make raw beets work especially well in this recipe. The beets retain their crunch, but the slices are delicate enough that they don’t need to be cooked.
The same principle applies to plenty of other vegetables. Sometimes a vegetable that seems as though it needs roasting, steaming, or sautéing simply needs to be shaved, grated, or chopped differently.
Three Layers of Citrus
Instead of relying on one citrus flavor, this beet carpaccio uses three.
Navel orange provides sweetness. Grapefruit adds sweetness along with a pleasant bitter edge. Lime provides the sharper acidity in the dressing, while fresh lime zest over the finished plate adds another layer of citrus without adding more liquid.
Together, they balance the earthy flavor of the raw beets.
Golden and Chioggia Beets
I use one golden beet and one Chioggia beet, also known as a candy-stripe beet because of the distinctive rings inside.
Besides making a beautiful golden beet salad with flashes of pink and white, these varieties have a practical advantage: they keep the colors of the finished dish relatively clean.
Traditional red beets will work too, but their pigment bleeds easily and can quickly turn the entire plate red.
Keep the Pistachios Crunchy
Roasted pistachios add richness and crunch to the crisp beets and juicy citrus.
The order of assembly matters. Add the lime and olive oil dressing to the beets and citrus before adding the pistachios and dill. If you drizzle the dressing over everything at the end, the nuts can lose some of their crunch and the delicate dill gets wet.
After dressing the beets, finish the plate with the pistachios, Maldon sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, lime zest, and fresh dill.
An Easy Make-Ahead Appetizer
Despite its appearance, this dish requires very little last-minute work.
The beets can be sliced and arranged ahead of time. You can also segment the orange and grapefruit, roast and chop the pistachios, pick the dill, and prepare the lime dressing in advance.
When you’re ready to serve, add the citrus and dressing followed by the pistachios, seasoning, lime zest, and dill. Once everything is prepped, finishing the plate takes only a minute or two.
What to Serve with Beet Carpaccio
Serve this as a light appetizer, salad, or vegetable side dish.
It’s also good with crusty bread and something creamy such as hummus. The creamy hummus contrasts nicely with the crisp raw beets, juicy citrus, and crunchy pistachios.
A Simple Way to Eat More Plants
There’s a surprising amount of plant variety on one plate: golden beet, Chioggia beet, orange, grapefruit, lime, pistachio, and dill.
Beets provide fiber, folate, potassium, and naturally occurring plant compounds. Citrus provides vitamin C and a different range of plant compounds.
But the larger lesson is simpler: changing how you prepare vegetables can make it easier to eat a wider variety of them.
Roasting isn’t the only way to make a beet delicious. Sometimes all you need is a mandoline.
Beet Carpaccio with Citrus, Pistachios & Dill
Ingredients
Method
- Trim and peel the beets. Using a mandoline, slice the raw beets into very thin, even rounds.
- Beginning around the outside of a large serving plate, arrange the beet slices in an overlapping circle, alternating the golden and Chioggia beets. Continue working inward in concentric circles until the plate is covered.
- Segment the orange and grapefruit, removing the peel, pith, and membranes. Cut each citrus segment into 2 or 3 smaller pieces and scatter them over the beets.
- Combine the lime juice and olive oil. Spoon or drizzle the dressing lightly over the beets and citrus.
- Scatter the roasted, roughly chopped pistachios over the plate. Season lightly with Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, then finely zest the lime over the top.
- Finish with fresh dill sprigs and serve immediately.