German Beet Salad: Rote Bete Salat mit Meerrettich

Germans typically boil the beets, but the flavor is far better if you roast them.* Also, fresh horseradish generally gives this dish a bit more zip, but prepared horseradish from a jar is fine too, although try using a new jar, or one that hasn't been open more than a few days, as horseradish from a jar loses its bite the longer it has been opened.

Ingredients:

about 2 cups beets, cooked/roasted, peeled and roughly chopped
4 tablespoons onion, chopped
2 teaspoons horseradish
1 tablespoon caraway seeds, whole or grind them
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
5 tablespoons olive oil (can use oil from roasting, plus additional)
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt (may not be necessary, if using roasted beets per my link below)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Cook your beets by your own preference. Put all other ingredients, except horseradish, into a pan and bring to a boil, then shut off the heat and let the mixture cool a little. You want the onion to still have a slight crunch to it. Pour the mixture over the chopped beets and let stand until just warm. Stir in the horseradish and serve slightly warm, OR, reserve the horseradish, pour the dressing over the beets, chill the mixture, THEN stir in the horseradish and serve (this is how I like it).  

* For roasted beets, here is the link: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/06/roasted-beets.html

WORD HISTORY:
Fat/Fatten-This word goes back to Indo European "pei," which meant, "to be fat. to be overly full," which  produced the form "peid/poid," which had the notion, "be well fed, to be fattened up." This gave its Old Germanic offspring the adjective "faita," meaning, "fat, bulging, plump," and this spawned the Germanic verb "faitijanan," meaning, "to fatten, to make fat," which gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) the verb "fættian/gefættian," with the same meaning, and this later became "fatten." Its participle form was "fætt," which meant, "fatted, fattened;" thus, the adjective form. This then became "fat," where is has remained for many centuries. The noun "fat" seems simply to have been derived from the adjective in the first half of the 1300s. Common in the other Germanic languages: German has both "feist" and "fett,"^ and Low German Saxon has "fett" (noun=Fett), West Frisian "fet" (adjective and noun), Dutch "vet" (adjective and noun, the "v" is pronounced as "f"), Danish "fed" (noun="fedt"), Norwegian "fett" (noun), Icelandic "feitur" (noun=both feiti" and "fita"), Swedish "fet" (noun=fett).

^ "Feist" was the form that developed in the high dialects, as at times, "t(t)," became "z," in the high dialects, which is pronounced "ts;" and indeed, it was once spelled "feizt/feizit," but in more modern times both the pronunciation and spelling changed to "st." "Fett" was borrowed by German from Low German (remember, BOTH are from the same Old Germanic source as their English cousin). Martin Luther used both forms, which helped to spread the usage of "fett" in standard German, where its forms (noun, adjective and the derived "fettig"=fatty/greasy) are now far more commonly used, with "Feist," the noun, and "feist," the adjective, restricted in use more for large game animals. For those learning German, the noun forms are both neuter; thus, "das Feist" and "das Fett." All German nouns are capitalized, although in this age of texting and Internet posts, that is certainly not always followed. LOL, or is it, lol?