Roasted Beet Salad with Honey Dijon Vinaigrette

I’m feeling a bit like a zombie over here. I’ve been up all night working on a final paper for my health law class, and even though I still have 6 hours until the paper is due, I have SO much work left on it. No bueno. Several hours ago I also started to notice some swelling inside my throat which quickly got worse…and you know what that means…I’m pretty sure the infection is back. Awesome. But in the midst of this chaos, I did manage to make myself lunch. And a wonderful lunch it was.

I’ve actually never tried beets before today, and I have to admit that I’ve always turned my nose up at them like most people do. But getting them in our CSA box yesterday forced me to try them. The verdict?

They smell weird, they stain your hands, and they are pretty darn tasty. I was shocked actually at how mild their flavor is considering their pretty intense beet-y smell. They kind of taste like carrots to me! I saw a few websites and blogs that used a foil packet method to roast them, and that seemed easiest to me so I went for it. All I did was scrub the beets and cut off the ends…

Then place each beet inside a piece of aluminum foil, drizzle with a tiny bit of olive oil, and seal each beet up into a little packet.

Roast at 350 for about 45 minutes and they’re perfectly cooked! Once you peel them and allow them to cool, they are the perfect salad topping.

(Please forgive my shorthand recipe today…I am REALLY short on time and energy!)

In the bowl I have:

• about 3 cups of lettuce (I used butter and romaine)
• 2 T. roasted almonds, sliced
• 1 T. feta cheese, crumbled
• 1/4 t. shredded deli-cut turkey (optional)
• 2 small roasted beets, cooled and sliced

After I made the salad I threw together a quick dressing that ended up being perfect with the flavor of the beets. Here is the salad again, this time all dressed up and definitely somewhere to go!

In the dressing:

• 1 T. olive oil
• 1 T. apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 t. sesame oil
• 1 t. honey
• 2 t. dijon mustard
• dash of salt and pepper

I LOVE the flavor of sesame oil, and it’s fantastic in a vinaigrette along with dijon.

I’m glad I went for it and tried the beets, I really was very pleasantly surprised at how good they are. This is exactly the kind of thing that makes me LOVE my CSA so much. The chances that I would have gone out and bought beets on my own to try them were slim to none.

Give beets a chance!

I have to go and try to finish up this paper. The challenge is 1)writing the paper and 2)managing to stay awake despite the Benadryl (for my throat) and running on 2 hours of light sleep. I can’t wait for this thing to be over! And looks like I might be headed to the doctor in the morning. He will be tired of hearing from me.

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren