Roasted Beets in Creamy Diabo Sauce

This recipe makes a great chilled side salad but it's also good enough for eating on its own and makes a light lunch with some fresh cheese like burrata, or a dollop of greek yogurt.  It is both sweet and spicy and very satisfying.

I know I am a bit odd, but I like to make my lunch for work every day.  If I am making this dish for lunch, I will get up and pop the beets in the oven (if I haven't made them ahead of time).  Once I'm done with my morning routine, I'll take the beets out, have breakfast and make the sauce while they cool, then chop, toss, and put in a small container to let them finish marinating until it's lunch time.  If you are not interested in pulling this together in the morning, you can make it the night before.  The beets can even be made several days in advance, just keep them in their foil packets until you're ready to use them.

Roasted Beets
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

Per person:
1 large beet, washed, tops removed and tail trimmed
1 tbsp olive oil per person
Salt & Pepper

Tear off a piece of foil large enough to enclose each individual beet.  Place each beet in the center of the foil, drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil and sprinkle with salt & pepper.  Wrap the beet tightly in the foil to trap all the steam while it cooks, and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper (for easier cleanup, in case the packages leak) in the pre-heated oven.  Roast for 45 min to 1 hour, until the beets are fork-tender all the way through.

Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 to 30 minutes.  Once cool, open the packets and gently rub the skins off using your hands or a paper towel. Chop the beets into small dice.

Diabo Sauce

I love this ghost pepper-basedsauce from the restaurant "Fat Rice" out of Chicago.  Yes, it's incredibly hot but when used sparingly it adds a great level of flavor plus heat to your dish.  Fat Rice's online store (https://squareup.com/market/loco-food-llc) describes the sauce as follows:

In the Indian state of Assam the Bhot Jolokia is the Maharajah of all chillies. Ranking as one of the hottest peppers on the planet, the “ghost pepper” tops out at over 1MILLION on the scoville scale. Diabo is a Fat Rice favorite! Sinful yet sweet with a whole lot of heat!  Indredients: Carrot, Habenero, onion, cane vinegar, water, ghost pepper, garlic, cane sugar, salt xanthan gum

If you don't want to order some Diabo sauce, you can substitute any other liquid chili sauce (Tapatio, Tabasco, etc.  Mix the other ingredients then add your sauce a drop at a time to your desired heat level.)

Per Person:
1 Tbsp mayonnaise, regular Vegennaise, regular or light sour cream, or Greek yogurt
1/4 tsp Diabo Ghost Pepper Sauce
2 tsp finely chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp lemon zest
a pinch of salt

Blend the ingredients together and toss with the diced beets.  Let marinate for at least hour, but can be made a day or two ahead of time if desired.