Roasted Beet Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette
Last week my husband and I decided to take a few days off and fly to Arizona to escape the Midwest weather, and get some much needed rest and relaxation. We enjoyed our time, sleeping in, exercising, having some spa treatments and eating out.
My husband isn’t much into trying new foods but he was a trooper this time, and let me make all the selections. All the restaurants we dined at were superb, but St. Francis was at the top of our list.
When we first drove up, my husband said, “I hate this restaurant already.” Why? It took too long to get there due to traffic, and he didn’t like the parking arrangements. OK! I thought the place looked great. Casual, yet trendy, with a relaxed atmosphere. The menu had a wide selection, each with a twist.
My husband was starved, so he ordered the Pork Chile Verde for an appetizer thinking I’d have some, but I had my eye on the Beet Salad instead. Plus, he ordered the Roasted Chicken. Of course, his eyes were bigger than his stomach, but he loved both dishes. In fact, he couldn’t stop raving about the roasted garlic sauce on the chicken. He even complained to me when they brought it since it had capers on it (he dislikes capers), but after trying it, said the sauce made them taste good. Hurrah!!! I had the Beet Salad and Roasted Salmon Superfood. Everything was incredible, even the wine was perfect. We were so stuffed we had no room for dessert.
After coming back to St. Louis all I could think of was that beet salad. St. Francis used tiny, whole golden beets that were purchased from a local market in Phoenix. I went to Whole Foods hoping to find some, but only found the larger golden beets, so opted for those.
If you’ve never roasted beets before, don’t be intimidated by them. They’re so simple to prepare, delicious and highly nutritious! You can read about them in a post I wrote back in March of 2012 here. However, you do need to be careful with red beets, they tend to stain your fingers and everything they touch, but not golden beets. Plus they’re so sweet and flavorful – I could eat them plain.
For this recipe I made one batch of beets just enough for my family. There are so many wonderful ways to serve them, plus they’re colorful & beautiful – they’d make a lovely presentation for your dinner guests. Here are a couple ways I’ve served beets that you might like to duplicate.
In my opinion, if you’re making a beet salad, be sure to serve it with arugula – it makes all the difference in the world. The peppery flavor of the arugula goes perfect with beets. Here’s my recipe, I hope you like it…..
Roasted Beet Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette
Ingredients:
Salad:
Roasted Beets (1 beet per person), sliced
Arugula
Avocado, diced
slivered almonds
shaved red onions
Clementines, segmented
Vinaigrette:
4 Tbsp. Blood Orange Olive Oil
2 Tbsp. fresh squeezed Clementine juice
1/2 tsp. agave nectar (see Health Benefits)
1/4 tsp. Dijon mustard
salt & pepper to taste
Directions:
- Plate salad ingredients individually for each person with a small amount of arugula, sliced beets, followed by remaining ingredients.
- Citrus Vinaigrette: Combine all ingredients
- Drizzle vinaigrette lightly over Beet Salad
Enjoy!!