This week’s pantry powerhouse is Beets!!! These earthy roots keep a while in your fridge, which makes them a good food to have in a shelter-in-place situation. They are good raw or cooked. Beets are full of fiber, folate, iron and vitamins. They are good for blood pressure, stamina , liver function and have disease-fighting anti-oxidents. I like mine roasted, pickled, raw or juiced. The greens can be prepared like kale or chard – sautéd with a little garlic squeeze of lemon. Yum.
Recipe
Honey Walnut Beet and Burrata Salad
Serves 4SALAD
- 4 cups micro greens or mixed baby salad greens
- 4 rounds burrata cheese (2.5 oz each)
- 4 medium beets – roasted and peeled (See my suggestions below)
- 1 cup walnut pieces
- 1½ tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp olive or walnut oil
- Pinch of salt
DRESSING
- ¼ cup walnut oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp shallot, finely minced
- Pinch of salt and pepper
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350. Line an oven sheet with parchment paper. In a medium size bowl, combine walnuts, oil, honey, sugar and salt. Stir to coat the walnuts. Dump contents of bowl out onto lined oven sheet and bake 10 minutes. Remove sheet from heat and let cool.
- Cut the beets in to wedges. Break up cooled candied walnuts.
- Mix the dressing ingredients thoroughly.
- To assemble salads, toss greens in some dressing until coated and plate greens. Toss beet wedges in beets, divide and lay on top of greens. Top each salad with a ball of burrata and ¼ of the walnuts.
How I Roast My Beets
I can’t remember where I learned this method. It’s just my personal favorite and I think it’s the easiest to deal with. Red or golden beets work with this method.
Preheat oven to 400. I scrub and trim the beets. Put them in a packet of aluminum foil on an oven sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle a generous pinch sea or kosher salt. Seal the packet airtight and cook for 45 minutes. Carefully open the packet (steam can burn!) and test beet tenderness with a fork. If they need more time, seal ‘em up and put them back in for a bit.
When they are done, let them cool until you can handle them easily. Take a paper towel and just rub off the skin. You can wear gloves if you like, but I think the juice stains wash off easily. When the beets are clean, cut the beets as you like and use or refrigerate.
We love beets and Burrata cheese at my house so any excuse to put them in a recipe is welcome. This salad is really good – the dressing is delicious and the smell of the “honeyed” walnuts, while they are toasting, is so good. Served it with crusty bread and of course a bottle of wine. 🙂 Thanks for the inspiration.