Roasted Beet Salad

Monday, September 2, 2024

‘Tis the first of September and Labor Day weekend, and I have slipped my choke chain to escape the droning of the lecturer in my latest online instruction. (If that voice were bottled, we’d have the cure for insomnia.) However, compliance and governance concerning generative AI are not the most energizing topics.

Madam BadWolf and I visited the local farm stand, where the fall crop of beets was starting to arrive. The shades and sizes were terrific, but from the sight of the beets, I had this compelling taste for the Beet Salad from the Friars Club. Beets roasted to sweetness, chunked into a spring mix, with toasted walnut pieces, drizzled with a Balsamic Vinegar dressing, Mr. Singh always knew I’d want extra feta. The feta was not a hard-pressed, crumbly, mature feta but a young creamy cheese. Luckily, the farm stand has an outstanding refrigerated section with feta good enough to eat with a spoon.

As both The Friar’s Club and Mr. Singh have passed, I must create my own salad.

I’ll mix medium beets in red, white, and yellow. I’ll wash, top, and tail them, then toss them in a mixing bowl, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with kosher salt and fresh coarse ground black pepper, and toss to coat well.

Each beet will be wrapped in aluminum foil and roasted in a 400-degree oven until fork tender, 45-90 minutes, depending on the freshness. These were done in an hour. Remove them from the oven, strip off the foil with tongs, and allow them to cool so the skin can be removed. Once peeled, I’ll pop them into the fridge to chill thoroughly.

The dressing production is simplicity itself. Drop all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and go mad. (Not too mad; I’ve had the top come off in mid-shake. ooh, what a mess.)

From there, it’s a straight-up assembly job. Toss the lettuce with the chunked beets, add the walnuts and shallot, add some dressing, toss, portion onto plates, and add the cheese on top.

From Wikipeida:

The beetroot (British English) or beet (North American English) is the taproot portion of a Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris plant in the Conditiva Group. The plant is also known as the table beet, garden beet, red beet, dinner beet or golden beet. Beetroot can be eaten raw, roasted, or boiled. Beetroot can also be canned, either whole or cut up, and often are pickled, spiced, or served in a sweet-and-sour sauce.

It is one of several cultivated varieties of Beta vulgaris grown for their edible taproots and leaves (called beet greens); they have been classified as B. vulgaris subsp. vulgaris Conditiva Group.

Usually, the deep purple roots of beetroot are eaten boiled, roasted, or raw, and either alone or combined with any salad vegetable. The green, leafy portion of the beetroot is also edible. The young leaves can be added raw to salads, while the mature leaves are most commonly served boiled or steamed, in which case they have a taste and texture similar to spinach. Beetroot can be roasted, boiled or steamed, peeled, and then eaten warm with or without butter; cooked, pickled, and then eaten cold as a condiment; or peeled, shredded raw, and then eaten as a salad. Pickled beetroot is a traditional food in many countries.