Beetroot, red onion and horseradish salad

Serves 4-6

Beetroot has become de rigueur on the nation's trendiest dinner tables – served either as a salad, hot side dish or a starter. If you visit farmers' markets you will often find different varieties and colours which look beautiful in a salad like this.

Try to buy fresh horseradish if you can for this dish, as it gives the salad a lovely natural kick.

600-800g beetroots, red or mixed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 medium red onion, peeled, halved and very thinly sliced
2tbsp freshly grated horseradish

For the dressing

1tbsp cider vinegar
tbsp Dijon or Tewkesbury mustard
3-4tbsp olive or rapeseed oil

Put the beetroots in a pan of cold salted water, bring to the boil and simmer for about an hour, topping up with water if necessary, until tender.

If you have different coloured beets then cook them in different pans to avoid discolouring; large beetroots will need longer.

Drain and refresh under the cold tap or leave to cool on their own. Once the beetroots have cooled down, you can easily remove the skins by rubbing them off with your hands – you can use rubber gloves if you want to avoid staining your hands.

Cut the beetroots into even-sized wedges or slices and arrange on a serving dish or individual ones.

To make the dressing, whisk all of the ingredients together and season to taste. To serve, scatter the onions over the beetroots, spoon over the dressing and then scatter over the horseradish.