Weeknight Dinner: Roasted Beet Salad

I love beets. I love them all ways – yes, even the pickled beets that come in a can. I mean sure, there are a million other better ways to eat them, but I’m just not that picky about them.

This is the second evening in a row that my husband is working late, so I’ve had extra time to prepare dinner. I don’t remember the last time before this week that I’ve had to cook dinner on a weeknight. That’s right folks, my wonderful husband does the majority of our weeknight cooking. He’s good at it too.

Extra time to prepare dinner really gets me thinking. You have a lot of dinner possibilities when you have at least two hours to bring something together. Coincidentally, I also had a lot of beets on my hands. Perfect.

Husband’s going to love dinner tonight. I think.

Any of the ingredients in this salad, other than the beets, can be easily substituted. Omit the carrots entirely if you don’t have any. Use whatever baby green you’d like to, or omit them entirely. If you don’t have pecans, walnuts or almonds will work just fine, or you can omit them entirely. Don’t have green onions? Try chives, or thinly sliced red onions. You get the idea.

Roasted Beet Salad

Salad ingredients:
5-6 medium beets
6 carrots (more or less, or none at all – whatever you’ve got)
2 cups arugula (or whatever baby green you have in the fridge)
1/2 cup pecans, toasted
3 green onions
feta cheese, crumbled (optional, but not really – when is cheese really optional?!? Come on!!!)

Vinaigrette:

1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp orange juice
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Start by roasting the beets and carrots. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with foil and drizzle with olive oil. If using large-ish beets, cut them in half before putting them on the pan, along with the carrots. Cover the whole pan with foil. Throw them in the oven for at least an hour.

While the beets are roasting, there’s lots to do.

Prepare the remainder of the ingredients.

Roast the nuts over a low heat in a dry pan. This should only take a few minutes. Remember to give them a shake every couple of minutes or so.

Prepare the vinaigrette: Just throw everything in a measuring cup and mix well.

After the nuts are roasted, there’s a little more chopping to do.

Now we just have to wait for those dang beets.

*insert Jeopardy! tune here*

Ding! Beets are done!

Check them for doneness by piercing with a knife.

Chop the beets into nice, bite-sized pieces. Or however you’d like to chop them – this is certainly not a picky person salad.

I know. Reminds you of a Dexter episode, doesn’t it?

Chop the carrots the same way and throw those roasted veggies into a big bowl.

Add the rest of the salad ingredients and mix well.

Sprinkle with cheese, if desired. Wait – of course it’s desired.

Sprinkle with cheese, if you have any left. We used a goat’s milk feta.