This salad is my signature salad. Whenever I ask what I can bring to a family dinner party, I am told to bring ”one of those fancy salads you make, you know the one with the beets and stuff.”
I came up with this salad years ago, when I first realized that cooking is fun, and salads don’t have to consist of only greens and tomatoes, and you can mix and match obscure ingredients and make delicious flavor combinations.
I love the blue cheese, beets, and citrus dressing combination in this salad. Obviously, I was not the first person to think of this combination for a salad. But the fact that other people have thought of this too just reassured me that I should continue cooking and coming up with my own recipes – I was doing something right if others were making the same thing!
I like to buy blue cheese (and feta cheese too, for that matter) in blocks and then crumble it myself – it is usually almost twice as cheap this way. But I do splurge on triple-rinsed pre-washed salad mixes, since I hate soggy salad and it is so much easier to just dump a bag of salad into a bowl than to rinse salad and then wait for it to dry thoroughly.
There are lots of variations you can make with this salad – you can use candied pecans, add some sliced onions, or some cucumbers. I like this basic version of it the most, and sometimes I spruce it up with some extra ingredients.
The best way to make this salad is by roasting fresh beets. If you choose to do that, get 2 small beets (they roast faster!), cut them in half, wrap them in foil, and roast at 375F for 35 minutes, or until a fork easily pierces the beets. Wait for them to cool, peel the skin off, and slice them into bite size pieces. But if you’re short on time, a can of sliced beets will do just fine.
Beet and blue Cheese Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette Dressing
Makes: 1 large bowl of salad (6-10 servings, depending on how much salad people like). Total time: 10 minutes.
- 5 oz container of your favorite mixed greens (baby spinach, baby lettuces, or mesclun mix)
- 1 pint grape tomatoes, cut in half
- 1 15-oz can sliced beets
- 1 cup pecans
- 5 oz blue cheese, crumbled
Dressing:
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- Pepper to taste
1. Drain the rinse the can of beets. Slice each beet circle in half to make semi-circles.
2. Toast the pecans over medium heat until they start to brown and are nice and fragrant.
3. If using a block of blue cheese, roughly chop 5 oz to crumble it.
4. Toss all the salad ingredients together in a bowl.
5. Combine all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl, and mix well. Pour over salad right before serving.
To see what else we cooked up for the dinner party, check out the Green Beans with Cranberries, Almonds, Goat Cheese in a Fig Balsamic Glaze recipe, and the Parmesan Stuffed Mushrooms recipe.
Coming up: Swai FIllets in a White Wine Lemon Garlic Sauce, and Healthy Dark Chocolate Truffles. Yum!
What are your favorite green salad ingredients?
The post Beet and Blue Cheese Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette Dressing – The Dinner Party Part III appeared first on Babaganosh.