This is a great side dish but can also be a brilliant lunch dish with a good crusty bread. You can also add other good stuff if you want, and sprinkle some nuts or seeds over it.
1 red onion
white or red wine vinegar
water
1 teaspoon sugar or honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
2-3 beetroots, depending on size
balsamic vinegar
3 cloves of garlic
olive oil
salt and pepper
1 sweet potato
1/4 block feta cheese
salad leaves
small handful mint leaves
olive oil
Start by cutting the onion in half and slicing it as finely as you possibly can. Put it into a small bowl or I would use a small jar. Cover halfway up with the vinegar and fill up the rest with water. Add the honey/sugar and salt and give a good shake or mix. Put this to one side while you prepare the other ingredients.
Preheat the oven to 180° fan. Take some tinfoil and make like a little bowl. Peel the beetroots and put into the foil. Drizzle with 1-2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and olive oil, throw in the whole garlic cloves, season with salt and pepper and close tightly. Put this into the oven for 1-1/2 hour. Poke it with a skewer and if you can easily go through the beetroot it is ready. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before removing from the foil and cut up into bite size pieces.
Peel the sweet potato and cut into bite size pieces. Put on a roasting tray, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and roast in the oven until they are nice and soft on the inside and have taken on a light golden colour.
Now it's just about assembling the salad. Get a bowl and put into it some salad leaves of your choice. Add the beetroots and sweet potato. Get the red onion and put some or all of it into the salad. I ended up not using all of it so that's where using a jar is a good thing because you can just put the lid on and keep it in the fridge. Crumble in the feta and throw in the mint leaves. Drizzle with olive oil and serve.