1 pound beets (5-6 medium sized)
3 eggs
1 ½ cups sugar (can reduce sugar about by half if less sugar is desired)
½ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda

Boil beets until tender. Drain, but ensure to save about ½ cup of the cooking liquid. Peel beets, roughly chop and place all in a blender or food processor. If it is not mixing well add enough of the cooking liquid to make a nice puree.

Measure out 1 ¼ cups of beet puree.Preheat oven to 350F. In a large mixing bowl, place eggs and sugar and mix well. Mix in beet puree. Next add the vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Sift together the salt, flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda. Mix in the dry ingredients until all is well incorporated

Notes: This cake is moist and rich. The moistness comes from the beets and will stay very moist for 2-3 days. The richness comes from the chocolate icing. It does not need the icing and can simply be garnished with a dusting of icing sugar. I have found that if dark red beets are used you get a hint of their flavour whereas if made with yellow beets you achieve the same moistness but lack the hint of the beet flavour.

1 pound (12-15 medium) tomatillos husked and rinsed
1 or 2 jalapeno chiles (2 chiles gives it a nice kick of heat and is recommended!!)
2 large garlic cloves, unpeeled
1 small onion, finely chopped
¼ cup loosely packed, roughly chopped coriander
salt, 1 tsp. or so
sugar, to taste

Cool, then pull off the stems of the chiles and peel the garlic. Scrape the tomatillos, the roughly chopped chiles and garlic into a blender or food processor. Pulse until all is a coarse textured mixture. Scrape into a bowl and add ¼ to ½ cup of water to give the sauce a spoonable consistency. Season with salt and sweeten slightly with the sugar. The salsa is now ready to use.

Stir in the chopped onion and coriander only just before serving.

Note: Use this salsa as you would with regular tomato salsas. This would go well with the Swiss chard, black bean quesadilla recipe.

1 medium/ large cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into ½ inch pieces
1-2 medium tomatoes, cored and cut into 1 inch pieces (or cherry tomatoes, halved)
1 medium red onion, cut in half and then very thinly sliced
8 red radishes, ends cut and then cut into 6 or 8 pieces each
6-8 basil leaves, thinly sliced
½ cup loosely packed coriander, roughly chopped
1 yellow peppers, seeded, and cut into ½ inch pieces
¼ -1/3 cup tomatillo salsa
2 tablespoons, extra virgin olive oil
1 lime, juiced
salt and pepper to taste
1 avocado, peeled, seeded and cut into ½ inch pieces

Make a light vinagrette with the tomatillo salsa, olive oil, lime juice and salt and pepper. Adjust the flavours accordingly, if necessary.

Place the remaining ingredients in a salad bowl, dress with the tomatillo vinaigrette, and salt and pepper. Serve at once.

This salad is great particularly with any meat or fish grilled.