Pulling up root vegetables for plating a fall salad

Vibrant colours fill Manitoba at this time of year including in the fresh, locally grownproduce that appearson dinner plates.

During the lunch hour onThursday, chef Nick Graumannfrom Nick's on Broadway pulledout Manitoba root vegetables and ripened sunflower seeds to assemble a sweet and crunchydo-it-yourself salad recipe at the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ's farmers market.

Lead taste tester for Chef Graumannwas CBC Manitoba's Nadia Kidwai, host of the Weekend Morning Show on CBC Radio One, 89.3 FM/990 AM.

When I was a kid we used to live near a sugar beet factory beets would fall off the delivery truck and Mom had us pick them up. So I really liked beets from early on.- Nick Graumann, chef at Nick's on Broadway

ChefGraumann,along with three other chefs from downtown restaurants, teamed up with CBC Manitoba this August forCBC Cooks Local, a cooking demonstration seriesat the downtown Winnipeg farmers market.

Each Thursday, chefs taught shoppers how to prepare a variety of meals using locally grown ingredients that can be found from vendors at the market.

Beet salad recipe

Peach and poppy seed dressing drizzled atop honey-toasted seeds, market-fresh peaches, locally grown beets andgreens.

Things to find at the market:

• Peaches.
• Honey.
• Mustard.
• Beets.
• Lettuce.
• Seeds.
• Quinoa.

Ingredients

Dressing:

• 2 peaches, pitted and roughly chopped.
• cup of vinegar.
• 2 tbsp. mustard.
• tsp. poppy seeds.
• 1 cup of canola oil.

Honey-toasted seeds:

• cup sunflower seeds.
• cup pumpkin seeds.
• cup puffed quinoa.
• 3 tbsp. local honey,heated until melted.
• 2 tbsp. white sugar.
• A pinch of salt.

Directions

Dressing

1. Place all dressing ingredients in blender and blend on high while slowly adding the oil.
2. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Cut pits out of peaches and roast in a parchment lined pan until tender and juicy.

Honey-toasted seeds

1. Mix all honey-toasted seed ingredients together until honey is evenly distributed.
2. Bake at 325 F for 10 minutes. Stir halfway through the cook time.
3. Seeds are done when their colour turns golden brown.

Beets and peaches

1. Place beets whole into parchment-lined roasting pan, coat in olive and and season.
2. Roast at 400 Ffor 30 minutesor until tender.
3. Let cool, peel, dice, and reserve.