Beets and raspberries taste more alike than you would expect, and this starter puts them on the same plate deliberately. Blanched beets are diced, sauteed in olive oil, then finished off the heat with cubes of Bordier Raspberry butter that melt into a sauce. Torn burrata goes on top, then toasted buckwheat seeds and fresh raspberries. Salt and Espelette pepper keep it from tipping sweet. Fifteen minutes if your beets are already cooked, and it is the sort of first course that looks like restaurant work.
At a glance
- Difficulty: Easy
- Serves: 4
- Active time: About 15 minutes, using beets that are already blanched
- Cook: A few minutes in the pan. Bordier gives no total cook time.
- Key ingredient: 100 g Bordier Raspberry Butter
Why this works
Bordier's Raspberry butter arrived in 2006, made at the suggestion of a pastry chef friend, and it is salted butter worked against tangy raspberry. Most people file it under dessert. It belongs in savoury cooking too, and beets are the proof. Beets are earthy and sweet in a way that needs acid, which is normally supplied by vinegar or goat cheese. Here the raspberry does it, and because the butter is salted, the seasoning arrives with the acid rather than separately.
The technique is a butter emulsion made in the residual heat of the pan. Bordier is explicit: add the cubed butter at the end of cooking, take the pan off the heat and let it melt gently. Butter melted slowly off direct heat stays emulsified and coats the beets as a glossy sauce. Butter melted over a flame splits into oil and milk solids and slides off. A spoonful of beet cooking juice loosens the sauce and carries it. The burrata is there for temperature and texture: cold, milky and soft against warm, dense beets.
Ingredients
Serves 4. Quantities are Bordier's own.
| Ingredient | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| Large beets, already blanched | 2 | 2 |
| Bordier Raspberry Butter | 100 g | 3.5 oz, about 7 tbsp |
| Beet cooking juice | 4 teaspoons | 4 teaspoons |
| Raspberry wine vinegar | 3 teaspoons | 3 teaspoons |
| Olive oil | 1 tablespoon | 1 tablespoon |
| Burrata | 1 fine 250 g ball | 1 ball, 8.8 oz |
| Roasted buckwheat seeds | 1 teaspoon | 1 teaspoon |
| Fresh raspberries | 50 g | 1.8 oz, about 1/3 cup |
| Salt | A pinch | A pinch |
| Espelette pepper | A pinch | A pinch |
One thing to flag: the raspberry wine vinegar is on Bordier's ingredient list but never appears in their method. Our guidance is to add it with the beet cooking juice in step 1, tasting as you go, since that is where the acid belongs.
Method
Step 1: Saute the beets and melt in the butter
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Add the diced beets and saute them for a few minutes. At the end of cooking, add the Bordier Raspberry butter cut into cubes. Take the pan off the heat and let the butter melt gently. Add the cooking juice, the salt and the Espelette pepper to the beets. Arrange the beets on the plates, then break the burrata into pieces and place them on top.
Step 2: Finish with buckwheat and raspberries
Pour the cooking sauce from the pan over the beets and burrata. Sprinkle with the buckwheat seeds and top with the fresh raspberries.
Tips from our kitchen
- Save the cooking liquid when you blanch the beets. The recipe calls for 4 teaspoons of it and there is no substitute that carries the same colour and earthiness. If you buy pre-cooked vacuum-packed beets, use the juice in the pack.
- Take the pan off the heat before the butter goes in. This is the whole technique. Butter added to a hot pan splits into oil and solids, and you get a greasy plate instead of a glossy sauce. Off the heat, it emulsifies with the pan juices.
- Dice the beets evenly, around 1.5 cm (1/2 inch). They are already cooked, so the saute is about surface colour and warmth, not doneness. Uniform dice colour at the same rate.
- Take the burrata out of the fridge twenty minutes early. Fridge-cold burrata is firm and mutes its own flavour. At cool room temperature the interior runs into the sauce, which is what you want.
- Toast the buckwheat if it is not already crisp. Two or three minutes in a dry pan until it smells nutty. Soft buckwheat adds nothing, and the crunch against the burrata is half the reason it is there.
- Season at the end and taste first. The Bordier butter is salted, so the pinch of salt Bordier calls for may be more than you need. Add it after the butter has melted through.
How to serve it
Serve this as a first course, on room-temperature plates rather than warm ones, so the burrata does not slump. It needs bread to catch the sauce and very little else. A dry rose or a light red served cool handles both the beet and the raspberry. If you want to explore the same butter in a sweeter direction, our guide to Alain Milliat jams covers fruit preparations that work with it on brioche.
Where to buy Bordier Raspberry Butter in the US
The French Pantry ships Bordier butter across the United States in insulated overnight packaging, straight from the workshop in Brittany.
- Churned Seasonal Raspberry Butter by Bordier (4.4 oz): salted butter against tangy raspberry, cubed into the pan to make the sauce.
The raspberry is a seasonal butter, so if it is between runs, browse the Maison Bordier collection for what is in stock.
Frequently asked questions
How much Bordier butter do I need for this recipe?
You need 100 g. Bordier blocks are 4.4 oz (125 g), so one block covers it with a little to spare.
Can I use a different Bordier butter?
The salted butter makes a clean beet-and-burrata plate, and you would then want the raspberry vinegar to carry the acid on its own. The buckwheat butter is another option if you want to lean into the toasted grain.
Can I use pre-cooked beets from the supermarket?
Yes, and it is what makes this a fifteen-minute dish. Bordier specifies already blanched beets. Vacuum-packed cooked beets work, and the liquid in the pack stands in for the cooking juice.
What can I use instead of burrata?
Fresh mozzarella torn into pieces is the nearest match, though it is firmer and less creamy. A soft fresh goat cheese also works and pushes the plate more tart.
How should I store the butter?
Bordier butter is a fresh, hand-churned product and ships cold. Keep it refrigerated in its wrapper and cube it cold, straight into the pan.
Can I make it ahead?
Not really. The sauce sets as it cools and the burrata weeps if it sits. You can dice the beets and portion everything in advance, then cook and plate in five minutes.
Related reading
- Bordier Butter: What It Is, Why Chefs Love It, and How to Use It
- How to Choose Your French Butter: A Buyer's Guide
- Terre Exotique
Recipe and photograph adapted from Maison Bordier, with thanks. The French Pantry is an authorized US retailer of Bordier butter.