By: Danya Weiner

As a food photographer I am inherently attracted to the sensuality of food. There are those foods which make my job more difficult, and those foods, like beets that make me excited to be shooting them. On a shoot, I am always on the lookout for the sensuality of the food im shooting, and I try to connect to that place in order to create the most appealing shot. For me, it’s not enough that the food tastes good or that it makes sense from a culinary standpoint, but it has to really look good (I know I sound like one of those superficial girls who only looks at hotties). Even the most delicious of foods that looks unattractive has the ability to dissolve all of my inspiration and creativity.  I’m completely biased towards shooting fresh, seasonal and beautifully inspiring produce and food.

Here’s an example: this past Monday we were shooting for the blog. I was in the kitchen shredding beets. The little speckles of beet juice that were shooting around my workspace began to form an almost picturesque form. When I was shooting the actual salad, that fine point of meeting between the purple of the beets and the white of the yogurt excited me like a girl at prom. I was fascinated by the colors, textures and combination of ingredients together. I know this made sound awkward, but this is the meaning of my work.

Back to the salad…

Many years ago there was a cute little café here in Yaffo next to my studio that used to serve a delicious beet salad with hints of orange, yogurt and mint. This salad is an attempt to recreate the one I ate way back when that left such a clear memory in my mind.

You can prepare the salad ahead of time by grating the beets and making the vinaigrette and then mixing the two before serving. This salad is so easy to make that I like to give it a more elegant touch by serving it in individual glasses rather than in one large bowl.

Beet and Yogurt Salad

Ingredients for 8 servings:

4 medium sized uncooked beets, peeled

For the vinaigrette:

½ cup olive oil

2 teaspoons minced garlic

⅓ cup lemon juice

2 teaspoons honey

2½ teaspoons orange zest

2 teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper

For serving:

1 cup yogurt, preferably Greek or goat’s milk

2 teaspoons orange zest

1 bunch fresh mint leaves

Preparation:

1. Using a hand grater or a food processor, coarsely grate the beets. Place grated beets in a large bowl and set aside.
2. Place all of the ingredients for the vinaigrette in a jar and shake until well combined. Taste and season accordingly.
3.  Pour the vinaigrette over the grated beets and mix to combine.
4. Serve the salad with yogurt, orange zest and fresh mint leaves.