RAVE: Roasted Beet Salad

This salad seems to be on every restaurant menu this Winter. And why wouldn't it? The combination of roasted beets and goat cheese is absolutely delicious. So in an effort to recreate this restaurant creation, I picked up some beets this weekend. Let me tell you, they do not sell them looking the way they do at restaurants! So, after scouring the internet to figure out just how to cook these crazy looking vegetables, I stumbled upon what I thought to be the most reliable recipe. It was quite easy and I hope you all can conquer your beet fears after reading these simple instructions:

(Don't let the amount of steps deceive you, I just wanted to be super thorough - I always need that when working with unknown foods!)

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees

2. Cut off the stems at the root of the beet (there are recipes for this part of the beet, but I haven't conquered them yet so I have no advice for what to do with them at this point).

3. Then, cut off any extra-long "points" at the end of the beet (not all beets will have this). Hopefully this picture helps explain what the "points" are...anyone know if they have a more technical name?


3. Scrub and wash the beets like crazy. They are grown in mud, so it will need a quality scrubbing.

4. Wrap each beet loosely in tin foil and place on a cookie sheet.

5. Bake/Roast for 1 hour.

6. Let them cool. Remove the tin foil. Peel the skin away with your thumbs (it should come off easily, if not, put it back in the oven for 10 more minutes)

7. Slice them up (however you want) and add them to your salad!

Warning: Beets will dye your hands (and anything else they come in contact with) So, be careful...

Use these beets to make your own version of a Roasted Beets Salad. The one pictured above has organic baby lettuce, goat cheese, and Amy's Balsamic Vinaigrette (if you haven't tried any of Amy's salad dressings before, you should, it is THE BEST!) This salad is good, but candied walnuts or pinenuts would make it extra special.

One final tip: I roasted 3 beets on Sunday and refrigerated the ones I didn't use. I recreated the salad tonight and it wasn't quite as good as when the beets were warm - but still a quality salad!

Correction: I originally said the salad dressing was "Amy's" Balsamic Vinaigrette, in fact, it is "Marie's" Balsamic Vinaigrette. Marie's salad dressings are amazing. But for the record, Amy makes some nice organic frozen pizzas and burritos.

One final final tip: I ate the beet salad again tonight. This time I nuked the beets for 15 seconds and that made the salad all warm and delicious like the first time all over!