Beautiful Beet Salad

Last Thursday I cooked for my house and prepared my favorite dinner: Beet Salad with candied walnuts and goat cheese. Even for those that claim to generally dislike beets, there’s something for every taste bud in this simple yet savory recipe. In reality it’s a lot like eating a dessert for dinner (um, what could be better?). Truly, much of the joy in creating this dish is that it is utterly stress free. Much of the time was spent giddily skipping around the kitchen after sampling the walnuts, which we hand-candied by simmering them in a pan of maple syrup (!). So here you have it, my favorite salad:

To serve six (I served 14+ but with salad, anything goes):

Ingredients:

4 medium beets - scrubbed, trimmed and cut in half

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

3 tablespoons maple syrup

1 (10 ounce) package mixed baby salad greens

1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 ounces goat cheese

Optional: we added caramelized onions for some extra pizzazz. It was a hit.

Directions

1. Place beets into a saucepan, and fill with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then cook for 20 to 30 minutes, until tender. Drain and cool, then cut in to cubes.

2. While the beets are cooking, place the walnuts in a skillet over medium-low heat. Heat until warm and starting to toast, then stir in the maple syrup. Cook and stir until evenly coated, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the orange juice concentrate, balsamic vinegar and olive oil to make the dressing.

4. Place a large helping of baby greens onto each of four salad plates, divide candied walnuts equally and sprinkle over the greens. Place equal amounts of beets over the greens, and top with dabs of goat cheese. Drizzle each plate with some of the dressing.

It’s already Monday and I still have people coming up and asking for a copy of the recipe!