Tuesday, February 12, 2013

You Can't Beet This Salad for Healthy Eating!



I love beets!

My love for them began when I was pregnant for my son 14 1/2 years ago. I actually craved them. I would buy them and boil them for the hours they took to cook, salivating just waiting for them to be done!

Then Dr. Oz came on the scene with his healthy eating tips and shared a salad that was made with beets and goat cheese. Well, I never made that because of the goat cheese. Then I went to a funky cafe in a funky part of the city near me and had almost that exact salad.

That is when I fell in love with goat cheese!

So when my husband gave me Lidia's Favorite Recipes cookbook recently I was thrilled that she had a beet salad recipe in there. I had to try it this time, knowing though that I was probably going to eat it all alone.......my husband and son wouldn't even think of trying it! So, I invited my girlfriend Bonnie over for lunch, making sure she liked the ingredients, and I made it. Her husband wouldn't ever try it either! It was delish! Definitely a girls luncheon kind of salad.

Since then I have made it a few times just for myself with a few changes here and there. It makes about 4 meals, so I was eating it for every meal till it was gone! When Bonnie came over I replaced the sliced apple with sliced cucumber because she can't have apples. I used only the red beets, which are so sweet, but they tend to throw a lot of their color on to everything. I also added swiss chard to the greens. When I made it for myself I added chopped walnuts which gave it just enough crunch!


This is the full recipe in one of those large pasta dishes!

Roasted Beet and Beet Greens Salad with Apples and Goat Cheese
 
 
Serves 6
 
10 to 12 small yellow and red beets with greens and stems attached (about 3 pounds)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 medium tart, crisp apple
4 oz. aged goat cheese
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
 
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
 
Slice the greens off of the beet bulb, leaving a tiny bit of stem on the top of beets, then scrub the beets clean and poke them with a fork. Put in a shallow baking dish with 1/2" water on the bottom. Roast the beets till tender all the way through, about an hour. Replenish water as needed. Test with a knife. Cool completely.

Rinse the beet greens well trimming off the tough parts of the stems and cut the softer stem pieces from the leaves. Bring a large pan of water to a boil and drop in the stems. Cook for about 10 minutes, then add the greens. Cook all for 20 minutes more. Drain and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and let them cool. I found that there weren't a lot of greens on one of the bunches of beets I had so I bought swiss chard, cooked it, and added it to the mix.

Peel the cooled beets removing the tip, the stem base and all the skin. Cut in wedges and put in a large bowl. Cut the stems and greens and add to the beets.

Whisk together the oil and vinegar with the remaining 1/4 tsp. of salt and some pepper. Drizzle the dressing over the beets and toss. Core and slice the apple and add to the salad, topping it all off with crumbled goat cheese and walnuts.

Mmmm....want some?


 
AnnMarie :)
 

15 comments :

  1. The salad looks good, but unfortunately I don't like beets. I'm glad you enjoy them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sounds delicious. These ingredients are certainly going to make it onto my shopping list in the near future.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The pictures look positively delicious! MY particular issue is that I have two toddlers... and you can bet your bottom dollar that Kyle wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. Jubilee, on the other hand, will eat anything. She loves carrots for snacks :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. That looks yum! My husband loves beets, so I might give it a try :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. That looks and sounds absolutely delicious. Gotta try it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Definitely going to save this one!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Awesome! We just discovered beets through our Full Circle Farm order that I keep forgetting to modify...we were "stuck" with beets once and I had no idea what to do with them. Since I forgot to check our order again this week, we may be getting them tomorrow and I might try this! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm definitely going to try this...looks yummy! Thanks for sharing!
    Janice

    ReplyDelete
  9. I've never been a big fan of beets, but this looks really good!
    ~Kim
    http://2justByou.blogspot.com
    Hope to see you at the Meet & Greet again this weekend! I loved your answer to our Get to Know You Question of the Week. =0)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Didn't know you could eat the stems and leaves. Beets always seem so healthy simply because of their rich color!
    Would love for you to share at my Healthy Tuesday hop! ahumblebumble.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  11. Beets are very healthy for you. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hmmmmm--- I absolutely love beets. This would be a great new way to enjoy them.

    Thanks so much for linking up our Healthy Tuesday Blog Hop-- I hope you join us again soon!

    Kerry from Country Living On A Hill

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment...I treasure each one! Do you know if you are a no reply comment blogger? I love to reply to your comments but sometimes instead of an email there is a noreply-comment@blogger.com. It can easily be changed by changing the setting in your blogger profile to "show email address".