Healthy Diet: Roasted Beet Salad

Posted on Jun 24, 2015

If there is one thing you can count on all summer long it is the abundance of beets at the Farmer’s Market. Beets are one of those foods I recently re-discovered. Up until a few years ago I thought all beets were like the ones you get out of a can: tasteless, slimy and unnaturally red. You know when you first try something as a kid and you have a bad experience with it? You swear it off completely thinking that you just don’t like it. Well, I swore off beets. Then I tasted them again and it was a food revelation. When properly prepared beets are sweet, earthy and delicious atop salads. Now they are one my favorite things to eat in the summer. Here is an easy beet salad that you can savor all summer long:

Roasted Beet Salad

3 large or 6 medium beets
¾ cup walnuts
6 cups mixed greens
4 ounces goat cheese
Basic Vinaigrette (recipe below)
Grilled chicken (optional)

Basic Vinaigrette

Add the following ingredients to a jar with a screw top lid (or a small bowl) and shake (or whisk) vigorously. Taste and adjust seasonings accordingly. If you like it sweeter add a touch more honey. If you want it creamier and tangier, add a touch more mustard. You get the drift.

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
4 tablespoons red wine vinegar (or balsamic vinegar)
squeeze of honey (or a teaspoon of sugar)
squeeze of lemon
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt (less if you are using table salt)
freshly ground pepper
chopped herbs (chives, parsley, dill, thyme, whatever you’ve got or even leave them out)
1/2 cup good olive oil

Preparation

Heat the oven to 400. Wash the beets and cut off the tops and bottoms. Put them in an 8 x 8 baking dish, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with Kosher salt and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Cook undisturbed, until you can pierce them easily with a fork, 45 – 60 minutes, depending on the size of your beets. Once the beets have cooled, simply peel off the skins with your hands and cut them into chunks.
Put the walnuts in a dry skillet over medium heat and cook, shaking the pan frequently, until fragrant and beginning to darken, 3 to 5 minutes.
Rinse and dry the greens and put them in a large bowl.
Pour some of the dressing onto the greens and toss to coat; pile the greens on 4 plates. Put the beets in the bowl, toss with some of the dressing and arrange them on top of or around the greens. Crumble the goat cheese on top and sprinkle around the walnuts. Serve and enjoy!