Difficulty level Easy

Now that we have the main course sorted out for your Valentine's Day dinner, here is a recipe for a very nice starter. This beet carpaccio can be made ahead of time, and then assembled at the very last moment. As with the recipe from yesterday, this yields more than two servings so you could cut the recipe in half.

I found organic golden beets at my market, but if you can't get them, then use regular red beets. If you use red beets put them on a white plate if you can, because the contrast with the deep red is quite beautiful. Even though I managed to get the beets I wanted I couldn't get arugula, so I substituted spinach. You could also use organic, mixed baby greens.

A mandolin would be a help with this recipe, but not essential. Cut both the beets and the onions as thinly as possible. I've added to the original recipe by suggesting that you soak the onions in ice water. At this time of year the onions have been sitting around for awhile and they can tend to bitterness. Soaking them removes that, so they taste much sweeter. This is a very attractive dish and you can decide whether you want to plate the portions individually or serve it from one plate.

Photo credit: Noel Barnhurst

INGREDIENTS