Beets Roasted with Tarragon and Olive Oil to al dente, then tossed with an Orange Vinaigrette and left to marinate until “almost pickled”. Served with Red Onion and optional Feta Cheese sprinkled atop. Simply marvelous Roasted Beets Salad recipe.
Roasted Beets Salad with Orange Vinaigrette
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On the Farm
Hello dear reader! If you’ve been following me from the beginning, then;
- I love you! and
- If you have a good memory dear reader, then you know from my Lime Creamed Corn post that I spent a lot of my childhood years growing up on a farm.
In said post I talked about one of my all time favorite farm foods: corn. Today I am going to tell you about my all time least-favorite farm food: beets. Or, at least I thought they were my least favorite! Now that I have an adult palate, I have found that I absolutely LOVE beets! Crazy sauce, right?!
My wonderful parents used to try to feed healthy foods to us crazy kids. Sometimes we had to stay at the table until we had taken so many bites. I wasn’t an overly picky eater and therefore didn’t get stuck at the table for long. However, if the healthy eats that night were beets; I slept at the table. Being the dramatic child that I was, I declared that I would rather be eaten alive by horned bulls, than eat a beet! (Yes, that was a silly declaration on many, many, accounts).
These days I don’t even have to be threatened before I’ll eat my beets. And horned bulls? I’d like them served alongside my beets as Filet Mignon or Kalbi Steak. Hahaha! Only sort of kidding…
Changing Taste Buds
I once heard that Women’s taste buds “change” every 6 years, and men’s every 11 years. I thought that was a funny claim that explained why men act so childish.
“They’re just a couple of years behind is all!”
I’m just kidding about that men joke! I don’t think that’s the case at all. Anyway, when I realized that I now like beets, that claim I’d overheard a long long time ago, came back to mind. “Oh” I thought, “They changed!”
Well dear readers, I’ve since done a little research and learned that while they don’t actually “change” with years, they do change with hormones. Which might explain why women’s taste buds change more often than men’s. I also found this article that claims we as humans lose more and more taste buds each year, so foods that were too intense in flavor for your childhood palate, become more palatable as you get older.
Beet Salad and Diet Hacks
Why dear reader am I telling you all about changing palates and all that jazz? Well, mostly because I found it truly interesting and if you’re actually reading my blog posts then you probably have a cool brain like mine and you’ll find it awesome too. However, I’m also telling you about changing palates because if you think you hate beets; maybe you should try them again. And if you still hate them, wait a couple years and then come back and try them one more time.
So here are a couple tips for your Beets Salad:
- Spiralizing is not necessary! I do that for presentation purposes. However, these little babies taste just as good cut into wedges or chunks as the do cut into noodles.
- If you want to spiralize them though; I highly suggest using a spiralizer with a crank handle. There is less chance of hurting your fingers, and more noodle shape and size options.
- The Feta Cheese is optional! I recently tried out a diet where cheese wasn’t an option. This Salad tasted just a good without the feta as it usually does with it.
- Try this delicious Beet Salad atop a bed of greens. It’s awesome! I prefer Arugula.
(Almost Pickled) Roasted Beets Salad Recipe:
Ingredients
- 4-6 Large Beets, washed very well and stalks trimmed down to only being 1 cm long.
- Olive Oil
- 2 Tarragon Sprigs
- Salt
- 1/8 Red Onion, Sliced thin
- 1/4 c Feta Cheese
- 3 Tablespoons Orange Juice
- 1-2 teaspoons Red or White or Rice Wine Vinegar
- 1 tsp Orange Zest
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- On a rectangular large piece of aluminum foil, place your washed beets and drizzle generously with Olive Oil.
- Sprinkle Generously with Salt.
- Place Tarragon Sprigs across the tops of your beets.
- Fold Aluminum over to create a foil packet.
- Roast beets for 45 minutes.
- Once Roasted, remove beets from packet and save their drippings into a bowl.
- With a paring knife, peel Beets.
- Spiralize or cut Beets to shape.
- In the bowl with your Beet drippings, combine Vinaigrette ingredients and mix well.
- Toss Beets with Vinaigrette and refrigerate for 1 to 24 hours. The time of marinating and refrigerating your beets depends on how pickled you want them to be. I usually prefer to refrigerate for 2.5 hours.
- When ready to serve, stir in red onion and top your Beet Salad with Feta Cheese.
- Enjoy!
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