Roasted beet and bacon sliders with garlic aioli and fresh pepper
Makes 4 to 5 sliders
Here's a twist on mini-burgers that uses roasted beets instead of meat, as created by UnChu Littlefield of the local food blog "Tate's Kitchen" (www.tateskitchen.com). Littlefield recommends using Kings Hawaiian rolls or other soft, sweet rolls.
INGREDIENTS
2 beets the size of baseballs
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
4 soft rolls
4-6 strips of good bacon, chopped as small as possible
1 cup lemon-garlic aioli (see recipe)
Rolls for serving
Lemon-garlic aioli
1 head roasted garlic
1 to 1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
Juice from half a lemon (or more to taste)
Pepper to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
For aioli: Set oven to 350 degrees. Make a small bowl out of foil and place this on a baking sheet. Place one head of garlic sliced about 1/3 of the way down, with cut side up. Drizzle with olive oil, and add a little salt and pepper.
Bake about 25 minutes – until some of the cloves look like they are trying to escape.
Let cool about 5 minutes.
Pop them out of the skins into a medium-size bowl. Mix with the above ingredients, preferably in a food processor. Season to taste.
For beets:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking tray with foil.
Trim the greens, but save for later – and I usually leave a little stem part at each end.
Wash and dry the beets, then rub with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
Lay them on your tray (make sure entire tray is covered with foil).
Bake 1 hour. When done, let cool a few minutes.
Carefully peel and set aside while assembling the sliders. While the beets are roasting, fry the bacon. Chop 4-6 slices as small as possible.
Assemble the sliders:
Slice rolls. Generously spread the aioli on both sides of the bread, then sprinkle bacon on top of the aioli. This will make sure you don't lose any morsels of bacon and that there is a little bacon in every bite.
Add a slice of beet.
We like one nice, thick slice of beet instead of several skinny slices – mine are a little more than 1/4 inch thick. It's nice and meaty when you bite into the slider.
Add some fresh ground pepper. Serve and enjoy.
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