This is the recipe for beet salad the way my parents made it. In autumn they would harvest the huge bed of beets in the garden, and then a big production would ensue. Boiling dozens of beets, first peeling and then grating them until we had a big laundry bin of salad, ready to be filled into canning jars. After all the hard work we had a big shelf full of shiny, canning jars filled with beet salad. During the winter months right into spring this was the go to on the days my mom was short on time. Mashed potatoes, eggs sunnyside up and a jar of beet salad and we were set and satisfied. Nowadays I don‘t boil 50 kgs of beets, but I still love this salad. I boil only 1 or 2 kgs beets and we eat the salad fresh, but it is a recurring item on our table.
And it is no mistake, that there is no oil listed in the ingredients. There is truly only salt, cumin and vinegar. Beets have an oily quality, when they are cooked. Adding oil would not only be superfluous, but cause an unpleasantly greasy mouthfeel. So, only salt and vinegar and don‘t be shy with them. The cumin can be a bit much, if you don‘t break it down. You can do this either by cutting it finely with a big knife, or pestle it together with the salt before adding it to the salad.