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Smoking Chimney

Recipes from a working kitchen · Cape Town

Beetroot Side Salad for the Braai

By Marna Ross Updated 12 August 2026 4.85 from 86 ratings South African
Beetroot Side Salad for the Braai is a lovely choice for doing something different for your Braai (BBQ). While employed by Augusta Kleinbosch Guest Farm a few years ago, we did this lovely beetroot side salad for the Braai quite a lot on our BBQ evenings. It is something totally different, but very tasty and delicious. Beetroot is one of the 'Wonder' foods, and if you are a very healthy person, you should definitely consider to make this at your next planned Braai (BBQ) evening. Perhaps on this coming Heritage Braai Day? With beetroot being a super/wonder food it is great for health and weight loss (for the mommies out there), low in calories, good for eye health, a great source of vitamins and magnesium. It removes toxins from your liver and for many more healthy reasons. The yogurt dressing is quick and easy to make. You can find the Nigella Seeds at Yuppy Chef. A lovely place to shop online for your kitchen tools and accessories. If you want to substitute the nigella seeds with something similar, use cumin seeds. Back in the days when I made it, I didn't know where to find Nigella Seeds, so I used cumin seeds. It works just as well. The key to the seeds is it gives some extraordinary aroma to the beetroot salad and dressing.This beetroot salad for the braai adds vibrant colour to the table. The flat leaf parsley you can get from your local nursery, I get mine from St Omer Nursery in Paarl..This dish is also wonderful with my  Traditional Roast Chicken for the Christmas Table.
A vibrant South African beetroot side salad dressed with light vinaigrette for a braai barbecue.
Prep 30 min
Cook 20 min
Total 50 min
Serves 6

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Ingredients

Beetroot Salad

  • 500 g beetroot
  • 1 squeeze of a lemon
  • 1 Tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 small bunch of flat leaf parsley
  • sea salt and black pepper

Dressing

  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • 200 g Greek double cream yogurt
  • 2 Tablespoons milk

Assemble

  • olive oil to drizzle
  • ½ teaspoon Nigella seeds or cumin seeds

Method

For The Beetroot Salad

  1. Wash the beetroot carefully, do not pierce the skin otherwise they will bleed while cooking

  2. Place the beetroot in a saucepan with salted water and cook for 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the seize of the beetroot

  3. Once the beetroot is cooked, drain them and rub away the skin from the beetroot underneath cold running water. Or leave the beetroot to cool and then remove the skin

  4. Cut them into 1 cm rounds and arrange on a platter

  5. Dress the slices of beetroot with the lemon juice, olive oil, parsley, salt and pepper

For The Yogurt Dressing

  1. Mix the garlic with the yogurt and check for seasoning

To Assemble

  1. Pour the yogurt dressing over the beetroot, drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with the Nigella or cumin seeds.

Chefs Tip

  1. The beetroot blends in with the yogurt and gives it a beautiful pink or purple colour. This dish is wonderful with grilled fish or chicken

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