If spring ever arrives, I’ll be making this roasted beet salad to serve for lunch or dinnertime. It’s a delicious, fresh dish that can be paired with so many different main courses. Plus, it’s so easy to assemble, so if you happen to have surprise guests you can whip this up easily. Just add wine!
Here’s how to make it.
Ingredients:
- 1 bunch of red and yellow beets, washed, peeled and left whole.
- cup of slivered almonds
- 5 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Sea Salt & Freshly Ground Pepper
- 1 tablespoon of minced Shallots
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 11/2 tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
- 1 generous teaspoon of Dijon mustard
- 1 large Pear – Bartlett or Asian
- Mache or Arugula
Directions:
- Put a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees
- Tightly wrap the whole beets in a double layer of tin foil and roast on a baking sheet until tender. This typically takes about 1.5 hours, depending on the size of the beets, but a good sign is if you put a knife in the middle of the beet and it slides out easily.
- Let them cool in the foil for about 30 minutes and peel off the skins – they will fall off on their own practically.
- In a small skillet, heat up the olive oil with the almond slivers until they’re a pale golden colour. Take off the heat and let them cool. Once cooled, transfer with a slotted spoon to a small bowl and season with ground sea salt
Dressing:
- Use a wooden bowl to make the dressing (if you have one) and add to it the Dijon mustard, plenty of ground black pepper, sea salt, red wine vinegar and lemon juice.
- While stirring the mixture, slowly add in the extra virgin olive oil until all the ingredients are incorporated into a puree that will work as a thick dressing. Taste test to see if you need any more seasoning.
- Add the chopped shallots and mix.
- Add the beets to the dressing and toss, then add the pear slices (quartered, sliced) to the salad.
- Top with a couple of generous handfuls of Mache or arugula and sprinkle with almonds. So yummy!
