The World’s Best 50 Restaurants is a prestigious industry ranking and the No. 1 restaurant of 2022 is Geranium, a fine-dining establishment in Copenhagen.
Geranium was No. 2 on the 2021 list and then made a surprising pivot in 2022: chef Rasmus Kofoed switched from an omnivore menu to a plant-forward pescatarian menu with an emphasis on local produce and seafood.
As more people reconsider their meat consumption, for environmental and physical health reasons, it’s inspiring to see Geranium lead the way by proving that meat doesn’t necessarily have to be the center of a special meal.
While we can’t fly to Copenhagen OR precisely recreate Geranium’s high-level gastronomy, we can still draw inspiration from what Kofoed and his staff are doing. For example, here’s a video of Kofoed assembling one of the restaurant’s signature dishes, called A Bite of Beetroot.
As an added bonus, beets and raspberries are both in season in Maryland in July and local gardens are full of fresh herbs.
Food can be beautiful, seasonal, delicious, and meat-free. Thank you to the Geranium team for the inspiration.
Beet Salad with Nuts and Yogurt
Ingredients
- Pre-cooked beets
- Vinegar (optional; skip if pre-cooked beets already have vinegar on them)
- 5-10 raspberries
- ~2 t. of fresh herbs (we used dill, basil, and mint)
- ~¼ c. whole milk Greek yogurt
- 2 t. mixed nuts or seeds (we used hazelnuts and walnut)
- flaky salt
- freshly ground pepper
Equipment
- Knife
- Cutting board
- Spoon
- Plate
- Scissors
Instructions
1. Slice 2-3 beets in half lengthwise. (Drizzle lightly with vinegar if your beets do not come with vinegar on them; it depends on the brand.)
2. Take a generous scoop of yogurt out of the container, and smear it across a plate in a decorative swirl.
3. Place halved beets, cut side down, atop the yogurt in a decorative pattern. Nestle raspberries in and around the beets. Both beets and raspberries will stick in place nicely, thanks to the yogurt. The exact number of beet halves that you use will depend on the size of your plate, your beets, and your appetite.
4. Use scissors to snip about 2 teaspoons of fresh herbs atop the salad.
5. Sprinkle about 2 teaspoons of nuts (or seeds) atop the salad, followed by some flaky salt and freshly ground pepper. Enjoy.
Notes
- If you want to be extra, you could toast the nuts but it’s so hot that we skipped that step.
- If you can’t find pre-cooked beets, you can buy fresh ones and then roast and dress them with vinegar yourself. But pre-cooked beets are a worthwhile shortcut. We’re not frequent buyers of pre-prepared produce; it’s more expensive, has a bigger carbon footprint, and goes bad faster. But cooking beets is a literal hot mess, and the pre-cooked ones make a quick, cool addition to this salad or any other dish.
- Almost any fresh herbs would be good in this dish, but dill is a classic Scandinavian ingredient. If you can’t get your hands on fresh dill, dried dill would work here.