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Beet salad with orange and feta

Author: Karen Esmonde-White

Published: 2011-01-01

Overview

Fall is baby beet season! These little jewels of sweet, ruby tastiness are ready for your eating pleasure. Seriously, I was eating these plain after I had boiled them and they were seriously delicious. There is a hint of sweet, with an earthy flavor. It is divine enough to make me consider starting my very own beet farm.

To encourage you to try a beet today, I thought I'd post my recipe for beet salad. Except that it's not my recipe, per se. It's a recipe I reverse-engineered earlier this year after trying it in Napa. Tastier than the original, I say! Here is the very precise recipe.

Prep time: 30 min Cook time: 30 min Total time: 1 hr Yield: Enough for 4-5 people, as a side salad Serving size: ~ 1/2 cup

Ingredients

Salad

  • Bunch of beets: (2-3 medium, or 3-4 baby sized)

  • Carrots: 3-4 medium sized carrots, peeled and grated into medium-sized chunks

  • Orange: 1 large orange, peeled and cut into ~ 1/2 inch pieces

  • Feta: ~ 1/2 cup, crumbled

(The ratio of these three ingredients can be, and should be, played around with to your liking. Since I like beets so much, I use it as the main ingredient.)

Citrus-Balsamic Dressing

  • Shallot: 1/2 shallot, finely chopped

  • Orange zest: Zest from 1 orange

  • Orange Juice: Juice from 1/2 orange

  • Aged balsamic vinegar (not too tart)

  • Freshly cracked allspice (!)

  • Freshly cracked pepper

  • Sea salt

  • Olive oil

Directions

Citrus-Balsamic Dressing Preparation

  1. Place shallot, zest, juice, vinegar, allspice, pepper and salt into a small container and let sit for ~30 minutes to let the flavors meld.

  2. Add oil and mix thoroughly.

  3. Sieve off shallots.

Salad Preparation

  1. Cook beets until tender: Use boiling water, with a little bit of vinegar (~ 1 tsp) added

  2. Immediately rinse beets with cold water and let cool to room temperature

  3. Peel beets and chop into small cubes

  4. Add remaining ingredients. Toss in citrus-balsamic dressing.

Food sensitivity information: Vegetarian, For Gluten-Free, check the ingredients on the balsamic vinegar and feta cheese before using