I have, at this very moment, no less than 4 different salads in my refrigerator. They may not be assembled, but the ingredients are there, ready and waiting to be sliced, diced and ricocheted into my mouth. Today's salad: the humble beet salad.
If you have a good salad in your life, anything is possible. No doubt you think I'm being dramatic, but I'm not. I'm being very, very serious.
Salad has fibre which makes you poop. Nothing is possible if you haven't pooped for a week. Nothing. You will be amazed at how much more accomplished you are if you eat salad. Eat a salad and you'll be doing complex math equations while climbing Mt. Everest in no time.
Lettuce all on its own doesn't have that much fibre. It's everything else you put in the salad that does. The salad I'm talking about today is a prime example of an "anything is possible" salad.
It's full of fibre, colour, flavour and fun. I made up the "fun" part. Fun is not an ingredient in this salad. But it could be if you made it while tap dancing as someone tickles you.
DROPSHOT
You won't get pretty flowers with it, but the ferny greenery of Dropshot (an herb in the Marigold family), tastes exactly like, IDENTICAL TO, black jellybeans.the ferny greenery of Dropshot (an herb in the Marigold family), tastes exactly like, IDENTICAL TO, black jellybeans.
Easy Beet Salad
There are many reasons to love this salad. First of all because it's easy and second of all because it's delicious. What more do you want in a salad? What more do you want in any food? What more do you want in life?!
By the way, if you're interested, you can make beautiful tie-dye beets like this by combining yellow and red beets in a tin foil packet while you roast them.
The dressing for this salad is one I keep in my refrigerator pretty much all the time because it tastes great on almost anything. Roasted red peppers for example. Or fingertips.
Roasted Beet Salad with Goat Cheese
Ingredients
Salad
- 2 roasted beets
- Fresh baby greens
- Beet greens
- Goats cheese
- Nuts of choice (I use regular or candied pecans)
Dressing
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
- ¾ cup olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon dijon mustard
- honey to taste (start with 1 Tablespoon and build from that)
- salt & pepper
Instructions
BEETS
- Cut tops off of the beets and wrap in 2 layers of tin foil. Roast in 400 ºF (200 ºC) oven until tender.
- In general, average sized beets take around 45 minutes).
- Remove beets from the oven and allow to cool enough to handle. Wrap in a cloth or paper towel and slip skins off.
- Refrigerate beets until cold.
DRESSING
- Add all the ingredients except the oil to a bowl.
- Whisk together.
- Slowly whisk in olive oil. Add salt and pepper. Taste. Add more honey if you'd like.
Assemble
Fill bowl with torn greens. Add sliced or quartered beets, as much crumbled goat's cheese as you'd like and pecans. Drizzle with dressing.
Notes
If you have them on hand you can also add: shredded carrots and diced apples
It's not a triple bypass. It's a salad.
You make the salad, it'll make the poop.
My co-worker recently shared a beet recipe with me - one I have now made several times.
When you're roasting the beets toss in a head of garlic and roast that as well. When done, squeeze the soft garlic pulp into a bowl, combine it with a generous helping of fresh lime juice and some olive oil. Whisk until emulsified and pour over the roasted beets. Serve hot, cold or at room temperature.
My preference is for room temperature - making this something of a salad especially if you serve the beets over a plate of greens. The tartness of the lime along with the mellow garlic flavour are a wonderful complement to the sweet and earthy taste of roasted beets.
To add to the other dominant theme of the thread - I not only experience the red poop - I get pink pee from beets.
hmmmm this sounds yummy! I could use feta as I buy the big tubs from Costco. I wonder if I could substitute pickled beets?
Yes, and yes. ~ karen!
Karen, Know that most of us feel you are our "first thing in the morning friend" that we call just to start our day off with fun AND information. Thank you for being our friend.
Thanks Diane! Since we're friends and all maybe you could bring me some ice cream later? ~ karen
And where have you ben hiding that beautiful gold flatwear? Or is that a recent Christie's purchase? I bet it looks lovely with the new hardware in your kitchen.
It IS a recent Christie's purchase! Good eye. ~ karen
I bought beets yesterday! Only now, I'm slightly afraid of them and plan to reduce the portion I actually eat in half.
I've never experienced the above mentioned horrors, but DANG! Beets are suddenly scary.
LOVE beets in all the many ways you can cook/eat them.... One way I judge whether a salad bar is worth it or not is determined by the presence of beets....
I too love beets salads. I make a very similar one but with a slightly tangy orange juice based dressing.
The beets in my garden did very well this year. So much so that I think I have red beet intestinal distress!! Eating them almost every other day keeps my tummy gurgling all the time. But do I give them a rest? I do not.
Hi Ann - I have a recipe for an orange juice based beet salad too, lol. My beets are just getting big enough to pick (for baby beets). Have to plant some more for fall harvest! ~ karen
Okay Dana, I know that I am a natural blonde, all the way down to the roots, and the carpet matches the curtains and all that- but I am usually pretty smart * usually*- is the key word. Please tell me that your five year old actually has a name and you're just dragging the joke a titch too long from an earlier post?
P.S. I could eat beets bay and night in almost any form, a polish staple.
Karen- Do you follow VictoriaElizabethBarnes.com? I think you two are cousins or something-You both make me spit coffee on the laptop and yet you both are very informative and helpful with so many topics of interesting info. Thanks
I just sent TAODS website to VEB, telling her that I thought they needed to read each other...same old house problems...I thought VEB would love to see Karen's kitchen. Great minds think alike, yes?
LOL. O.K. I'll go see her site. :) ~ karen
I love beets but my husband can't stand them! So, I eat them on my salad and don't give him any. But I've never noticed red poop before.
I've trimmed the 5 pages down to one 3" x 5" recipe card. I really get a kick out of doing that to recipes, by deleting the obvious, you know "Ingredients", "assemble", double spacing, font size and then sometimes I even make them! Looking forward to this one - I love beets.
Beets beets the magical food, the more you eat the more... well you know. Thanks for the recipe for success!
Years ago, my daughter (I think she was 17/18 or so) rang from work to ask if I could pick her up and take her to the doctor. I duly did. She hadn't offered any info on why but when we were almost there, I asked. She said she'd noticed blood in her poop that morning and had been stressing about it. I didn't go into fits of laughter but I did smile. Well, I think I did laugh a bit actually. I said her dad had the same problem - we'd had beets for dinner the previous evening. We stopped off at the doctor's while she ran in to cancel the appointment! So, just reinforcing your Don't go running off to the doctor note.
My daughter, 5 & still unnamed, has beeturia. When she eats beets she pees bright pink. Tmi? The first time it happened I was scared that it was blood. Just a warning. We eat beets a lot. Its normal now to us. What do you think of the name Cheez Wiz?
Hi Dana - I like the name Cheez Whiz but only if ya know, she's boring. Because Cheez Whiz adds personality. I think it's best to crack the bowling bag open a bit a maybe see what she looks like. I like literalism. So if she's blonde for instance, call her Blondie. Good luck! ~ karen
Yes! We eats lots of salads for dinner, nothing but salads. No salad recipes are always nice to have.
I was starting to chew a nail over the 5 pages of instructions until you wrote the beet salad cliff notes. And the disclaimer at the bottom of this post... priceless. Laughing so hard.
I'm growing the Cylindra beets this year, which just look like - oh, never mind.
The first year we grew beets I feasted heartily one night. After my morning constitutional the next day, I looked at the bowl and thought "welp, I've had a good life". I seriously thought my internal organs had liquified! But...I'm used to it now. LOl. No trips to the ER!
I make a similar salad, but I throw in a bunch of horseradish. Delicious!
Dear Karen --Love your posts! You're teasing us. If time--Recipes please for the other three salads. :) Thanks!
This looks delicious and the second recipe looks easier than the first, so I'll try that one. Would putting hard boiled eggs on it ruin it? Yum!
yes
Just ate my first roasted baby beets from the garden tonight. Yum Yum. Next time will try this beet salad. My day isn't complete without at least one salad.