Beetroot and spinach bread dough braid together, each loaded with flavor.
Course Bread
Cuisine Mediterranean
Keyword Beetroot Spinach Bread
Prep Time 45 minutesminutes
Cook Time 30 minutesminutes
rise 1 hourhour
Total Time 2 hourshours15 minutesminutes
Servings 12servings
Equipment
2 Large mixing bowls
1 Baking sheet pan
Ingredients
Beet Dough
1cupCooked beets 1 medium or 3 little
1Egg
1Garlic clovecrushed
2tspYeast
2tspSugar
1tbspSalt
3-4cupsFlourmore for dusting
2tbspOlive oil
Spinach Dough
1lbSpinach
1Onionsmall
1/2Lemon juiced
3tbspOlive oil
1Egg
2tspYeast
2tspSugar
1tbspSalt
3-4cupsFlour more for dusting
1Egg for egg wash1 egg with 1 tbsp water
Instructions
Beets
Peel and chop the beets into small cubes. Just barely cover with water and simmer until soft. Cool.
In a food processor, puree the strained beets (saving the beet water), with crushed garlic clove and the egg. Measure out this mixture in a measuring cup, to equal 1 1/2 cups of liquid. If not enough, add a little of the reserved beet cooking water to complete the measurements.
In a mixing bowl, place the yeast, sugar and beet mixture. Add salt and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Blend.
Slowly fold in the flour until the dough comes together and no longer feels sticky. No heavy kneading needed, just press and fold flour into the dough until it’s not sticky.
Clean the bowl, brush with 1 tbsp olive oil, return the beet dough to the oiled bowl, cover and let rise about an hour.
Spinach
In a sauté pan, place 2 tbsp of olive oil, finely chopped onion, spinach and lemon juice from half a lemon. Cover and let simmer until onions are soft and spinach is wilted. Cool.
Place this mixture (liquid and all), in a food processor, puree with salt and the egg. Measure the mixture to obtain 1 1/2 cups of liquid. If more is needed, simply drizzle in enough water to obtain measurement.
In a mixing bowl, place the yeast, sugar and spinach mixture.
Slowly fold in the flour until the dough comes together and no longer feels sticky.
Clean the bowl, brush with 1 tbsp olive oil, return the spinach dough to the oiled bowl, cover and let rise about an hour.
Assemble and Bake
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Brush a very little amount of olive oil on the pan or plates for baking.
When both doughs have risen, punch the dough down, roll out into a long log on a floured surface. Cut each rolled out log into 4 pieces. Stretch these pieces to about a foot long each.
Lay one spinach log and one beet log side by side and twist them together. Bring the twisted log into a circle, or leave in a long twisted loaf. Place on baking sheet, loaf pan or dish. Brush with egg wash (final egg whisked with tablespoon of water).
Bake until golden crust on top, about 25-30 minutes.
Video
Notes
While the steps appear long, it is actually two doughs but prepared mostly the same as one.