Roasted Beet Salad

I'm a little behind with all the Christmas madness and am in need of down time, so this is a post I wrote a couple weeks back. I meant to post it the week I made it but other things kept coming up and taking priority (It's funny how seriously I take this blog). Also, coincidentally, today, December 28th is my blog-a-versary! One year baby! I had wanted to celebrate with something a little sexier than beet salad but hey, I'll take what I can get at this point! So here it goes...flash back to a couple weeks ago...

Jeremy's heart will skip a beat when he learns we are having roasted beet salad with dinner. He loves beets. He loves me when I make beets. What? Your husband doesn't share the same enthusiasm? He just might if you make them this way...

Most people don't make beets because you have to handle them, usually peel them, and they dye your hands red. They are messy and ugly to say the least. The other reason why some people don't make beets is because they taste like dirt. There. I said it. It's out in the open and I agree with that statement. However, when you prepare beets this way, dare I say, correctly, it will take minimal effort of your part, leaving your hands stain free, and leaving you with a beet that tastes fresh and bright, if not a bit earthy. You can't totally transform the taste of beets. I mean let's get real, this recipe is not for people who hate beets, after all. No, this recipe is for people who don't mind beets and are looking for a way to make them taste good. Enter cool, sliced beets matched with herbs and vinaigrette.

I haven't gone vinaigrette crazy (I blogged about leeks vinaigrette not too long ago) but there is no doubt that a good tangy vinegar can take certain vegetables from ordinary to extraordinary. The oil rounds everything out and fresh herbs and red onion give it freshness. Beets in my opinion taste better cold or room temperature, like this salad. It helps to diffuse the dirty taste that is more foreword in a warm beet.

Roasted Beet Salad

adapted from Bouchon by Thomas Keller

1 1/2 pounds (4 large) red beets

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

about 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

1/2 red onion, peeled

1 tablespoon chopped tarragon

1 tablespoon minced chives

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Wash the beets and trim the stems, leaving about 1/4 inch attached. Place them on a large piece of aluminum foil and toss with 2 tablespoons of the oil, 2 tablespoons water, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper.

Lift up the edges of the foil and squeeze together to form a packet. Place in a small baking pan and roast for about 1 1/2 hours, or until beets are tender, offering no resistance when pierced with a knife. Carefully unwrap the beets and let stand just until cool enough to handle.

Rub each beet with a paper towel to remove the skin. Cut off and discard the stems. Cut the beets into quarters, then cut the quarters crosswise into 1/4-inch thick slices and place in a bowl. Season with a light sprinkling of salt and pepper. Add red wine vinegar, orange juice, and remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Toss and season to taste with additional salt and pepper. (I added a bit more vinegar as well).

Let the beets marinate for at least 30 minutes, or up to a day, in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before finishing the salad.

About 30 minutes before serving, cut three or four 1/8-inch -thick slices crosswise from the onion and separate the slices (reserve the remaining onion for another use). Toss the beets with the onion, tarragon, and chives. Just before serving, check the seasonings and add additional sat, pepper, and/or vinegar to taste.

Red Pear, Grape, Pomegranate, Pecan Salad & Christmas Card

Merry Christmas from the MacGray Family! Nice little "Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" action going on over here.

I have said it before and I'll say it again. I like salads with character. Salads with lots of flavors and textures and great dressing and this one fits the bill! So, I give you a salad with a ridiculously long name that can actually live up to it. This is festive salad. It's holiday celebration salad what with all the pecans, blue cheese and grapes, pears and pomegranate seeds. I'm a sucker for stuff with pomegranate seeds.

I served this with honey baked ham, rolls and roasted potatoes with herbs for our White Elephant Christmas party this past weekend. I didn't have to do anything with the ham or rolls but set them out, so I decided I had to put some effort into the side dishes, not that it was much. You do have to make the dressing, but it's easy and takes 5 minutes of your time and can be done way in advance. Then there is the prep. The prep is a tad extensive (seeding pomegranates is not exactly my idea of a good time) But my secret is to fill a medium sized bowl with water and to rip apart and seed the pomegranate directly in the water, picking out large pieces of pith as you go. That way you don't get red juice splattering all over your kitchen and clothes and run away seeds on your floor. Just strain the seeds into a fine mesh strainer or colander and you are ready to rock.

As for the rest of the prep, I like to cut the pears first (about 1-2 hours before I will serve the salad) and toss them in the bottom of the serving bowl with a tiny bit of the dressing so they will not brown. Then I cut the rest of the ingredients (grapes, onion, cheese crumbles, pecans and pomegranates) and add them in with the pears. I pile the lettuce loosely over the top and keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve. When it's time, just toss the salad together with the dressing (you probably will not use all the dressing. See note below) and add the orange zest and ta da!

Red Pear, Grape, Pomegranate, Pecan Salad

Adapted from Country Living, October 2009

makes 8-10 servings

3/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil

6 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 pound red leaf lettuce

1/2 pound butter lettuce

1 pomegranate, seeded

30 large, dark seedless grapes, halved

1 medium red onion, sliced in thin strips

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

2 ripe red pears, cored and sliced thinly

1 cup toasted pecans

Zest of 2 oranges

Combine vinegar, brown sugar, salt and pepper in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until sugar is dissolved, about 4-5 minutes and set aside to cool. Whisk the oil into the vinegar mixture until well blended, or pulse together a few times in a magic bullet or small blender until emulsified. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Tear lettuces into 1-inch pieces and wash and drain in a salad spinner. Put lettuce in a big salad bowl and add pomegranate seeds, grape halves, onion slices, blue cheese, pecans and pears. Drizzle vinaigrette on top an toss together. Sprinkle top with orange zest. Serve.

Simplify entertaining by making the salad in advance, keeping in the fridge and dressing just before serving. One thing to note is that this salad dressing is relatively thin. It's supposed to be that way. It sort of absorbs into everything in the bowl.

NOTE: This recipe makes a lot of dressing, but it is hard to half so I left it as is. I doubled the recipe for the salad and kept the dressing amounts the same for my party and still didn't use it all.

Apple and Pecan Salad with Vidalia-Honey Vinaigrette

I don't usually make great salads. I'm going to just admit that one off the bat. I love a good salad but I find the ones I make at home just are not that exciting. Therefore, I don't make them a whole lot. My go to side salad is lettuce, cucumbers, avocado, green onion, cherry tomato and Italian dressing. It's fine, but nothing special. I like very put together salads. Kind's who have the perfect crisp lettuce to match the dressing and a great combo of ingredients (something kinda salty, something kinda crunchy, something kinda sweet) that compliment and balance each other. Basically, the salad has to speak to me. It has to say "I have tons of flavor and I'm very interesting, try me".

That's exactly what this salad did. It spoke to me. I have always loved Vidalia onion vinaigrette's but did not know how to make one from scratch until now. It's a great dressing. Slightly sweet and tangy with a solid carmel-y, onion-y foundation that just sings. It's perfect with greens, nuts (kinda crunchy), apple (kinda sweet) and well, cranberries, which are also kinda sweet, but, you could throw in some aged cubed cheddar if you are really wanting that kinda salty element.

We ate this along side a casual soup and it just stepped up the entire dinner. This salad is homey, special and so Fall. You could also eat this alone as a main course with a dinner roll because it's that satisfying. And I don't take eating salad for dinner lightly.

Vidalia-Honey Vinaigrette

adapted from Southern Living, Oct. 2010

1/2 cup chopped Vidalia onion

3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp vegetable oil(I used 1/2 cup)

1/4 cup cider vinegar, divided

1/4 cup honey

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Saute onion in 1 tbsp hot oil in a medium skillet over medium heat, stirring often, 8 minutes or until caramel colored. Add 2 tbsp. vinegar, stirring to loosen particles from bottom of skillet. Remove from heat; cool 5 minutes.

Process onion mixture, honey, salt, pepper, mustard, 1 Tbsp vinegar, and remaining oil (I recommend adding 1/2 cup oil and tasting before adding the other 1/4 cup to see if you even need it) in a blender or magic bullet for 30 seconds or until blended. Cover and chill 3 to 24 hours.

Apple and Pecan Salad

serves 4

5-6 cups salad greens (I used a mixture of green and purple butter lettuces)

1 large honeycrisp apple, chopped

a couple handfuls of toasted pecans

1 handful of dried cranberries

a handful of cubed of aged cheddar (optional)

Toss together with the vinaigrette and serve immediately

You won't need all the dressing for the salad. Just use enough to coat the leaves nicely and reserve the rest for another time. You can use whichever salad greens you prefer, but I used the butter leaf mix plus a few handfuls of baby arugula because it's hardy and can stand up nicely to the vinaigrette. This dressing is thick and will weigh down delicate greens such as arugula alone. Butter lettuces are a perfect match for this salad.

Greek Salad 3.0

How can this Mediterranean classic get any better? Serve it chopped! And with shrimp! (If you are me, anyway). I made this the other night for dinner and it was completely satisfying. If I'm going to have a salad for dinner there are going to be a couple requirements. The first is it must have some sort of protein or else I just won't fill up. This salad already packs a dose of that with garbanzo beans, but I up it one with grilled shrimp. The other is that it must have a lot of things going on in it in order to satisfy me. This Greek salad is the perfect answer and meets the said requirements. Fresh crisp romaine, garbanzo beans, cucumber, artichoke, feta, red bell pepper, fresh mint, red onion and plenty of kalamata olives for that olive-oily salty bite. The original recipe calls for chopped tomatoes and yellow bell pepper instead of red, but anyone who's been reading this blog long enough knows I have a hate relationship with fresh tomatoes and so I left them out. If you love them add them in. The only reason I chose red bell's was for the color since I was missing the tomato.

We have mass amounts of veggies and protein going on in this dish but if you are more of a carb person just add some torn pita bread (whole wheat recommended) on the side and you have a perfect, light dinner. The dressing to this salad is light and refreshing and finishes it off perfectly. That being said, I have to confess I used a luxury item in the dressing. Instead of regular olive oil, I used a Tuscan blend olive oil my Grandma brought me back from Napa Valley and it upped the flavor quotient five fold and made the salad more interesting. You can buy flavored olive oils in the regular grocery store usually right by the other oils and if you have access to them they are fabulous. If you can't find a Tuscan blend, I imagine basil olive oil would work great with this. This is ready in 20 minutes.

Greek Salad 3.0

Recipe adapted from Lori Powell and Health Magazine

Serves 4

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 small garlic clove, minced

1 tablespoon honey

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (I used flavored olive oil)

1 1/2 heads hearts of romaine, chopped

1 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 small red bell pepper

1 cup chopped cucumber

1 can quartered artichoke hearts (or marinated if your feeling zippy)

1/2 small red onion, chopped

1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives

1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

1/4 cup fresh mint leaves

pitas, toasted for serving, optional

Whisk together the first 5 ingredients (through the black pepper) in a bowl. Slowly whisk in olive oil until well combined.

place romaine in a large serving bowl. Arrange chickpeas and next 6 ingredients (through feta) on top in sections. Sprinkle mint leaves over the salad. Drizzle with the dressing just before serving and toss. Serve with pita bread and grilled shrimp if desired.

Grilled Shrimp: skewer 4-5 medium sized, peeled and deveined, tail on shrimp for each person. Turn the grill to high. Coat the shrimp in olive oil, salt and some Chesapeake (or old bay) seasoning. Grill for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes per side until shrimp are just cooked through.

Since this recipe came from health magazine, I have some stats for you. Based on the serving size of 3 1/2 cups of salad and 1/2 pita plus 1 1/4 tablespoons of dressing: Calories 278; fat 14g (sat 3g, mono 8g, poly 2g) Cholesterol 11 mg; carbohydrate 32g; sugars 11g; Fiber 7g; iron 3 mg; sodium 537mg; calcium 163mg.

Or if you are like me you could not care at all what the nutritional information says because, heck, you are eating salad for dinner. How bad can it be?