Roasted Beet Salad

As a kid the only way I ever ate beets was in a cold soup known as borscht with a dollop of sour cream. I don’t think I even realized what a raw beet looked like. I was never a fan of borscht, but as an adult I discovered that I really love roasted beets. I especially like how sweet meets savory in a roasted beet salad with spinach, goat cheese, pecans and Mandarin oranges.  The combinations are endless and I only use what I have handy.  I really like to use both red beets and golden beets, but golden beets are sometimes hard to find.

Ingredients

• Beets: For this salad I used one “bunch”  of red beets which happened to have three medium sized beets
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 1lb baby spinach leaves
• 1 small can of Mandarin oranges (save the juice!)
• 4 oz goat cheese crumbled
• 1/2 cup pecans or walnuts

How to:

• Preheat oven to 400
• Cut off top greens, and the bottom stringy root on the beets
• Scrub beets, pat dry and put them on a sheet of aluminum foil
• Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper
• Make a pouch of the foil, sealing lightly and bake for about 40 minutes or until a knife inserted into the largest beet meets no resistance
• Open pouch and let cool
• Remove skins by slightly rubbing with hands or with a paper towel
• Cut beets into thin slices or small chunks depending on your preference
• Put spinach, Mandarin oranges (drained, but set liquid aside), beets and nuts into a large bowl
• Season with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil and a small amount of the liquid from the oranges.  Toss salad until coated well
• Top with goat cheese and serve

The next day I used the remaining roasted beets in the salad below with mixed greens, roasted vegetables (tri-colored peppers, onions and eggplants) mandarian oranges, pecans and goat cheese.