It's beet season and I'm happy about that. I pulled about half of my little crop this week and commenced to roasting them, which so far, seems to be my preferred cooking method. Aren't they just so pretty? What are you going to do with all those roasted beets, you might be asking. I love having them cooked and ready to pull out as a colorful addition to most any meal I've planned. And then there's this salad...
To roast my beets, I scrubbed them well, cutting off the tops and leaving the root end intact. I brushed a little olive oil on them and put them into a roasting pan, with about a fourth cup of balsamic vinegar. Covered with foil, I put the pan in a very hot oven and roasted them until the beets were tender when pierced with a fork. When they were cool enough to handle, I cut off the top and bottom and the peel slipped right off. I had pink fingers the rest of the day.
I made a balsamic vinaigrette with 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, 1/2 cup olive oil, 2 t. dijon mustard and little maple syrup for sweetening. I poured some of this over the warm beets and let them marinate. I reserved the rest to drizzle over the salad. And this is how I assembled the salad: pile the lettuce greens in a bowl ( these were the very last ones from my garden), add chopped apple, sliced roasted beets, cooked bacon, crumbled goat cheese and toasted, chopped hazelnuts. Those nuts had been hanging around in my refrigerator since Christmas baking and were absolutely perfect for this salad. Drizzle with reserved dressing.
So, so good.
Looks yummy!
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