Beet Salads

Winter salads are refreshing.  But without summer tomatoes, they can seem bland and pale.  Enter the roasted beet, a nutrient packed solution to bring color and intense flavor to winter salads.

Beets are good companions to several salad ingredient favorites.  Thinly sliced beets and carrots create a nest of color with sliced apples over chopped greens.  Roasted salted pepitas add a little crunch and replace croutons.

Beets love goat cheese, whether the standard rolled and sliceable variety or an elegant goat brie (pictured above). Sprinkle in the zest of an orange to layer in a bright note that brings vinaigrettes alive in your salad.  Try a honey based salad dressing for this one.  Magic.

Finally, toss roasted beets with dill, salt and pepper.  Pile the mixture over torn lettuce like romaine.  Pour on any sour cream- or mustard-based dressing (think homemade ranch or dijon mustard vinarigrette) for a salad that plays up beets' affinity with herbs.  In addition to dill, try chives, coriander or even the often forgotten fresh parsley.