Roasted Beet Salad – Making a roasted beet salad sounds a little time consuming. But, the best part is that you can roast your beets ahead of time and make your beautiful roasted beet salad to serve.
Plus, we’re going to show you how to cook fresh beets easily.
So, What do Beets Taste Like?
If you’ve not had beets before, you are probably wondering what do beets taste like. The best way to describe what beets taste like is to say: earthy. They are a earth-grown vegetable similar to a potato. They are hearty, sown from the earth and can be absolutely delicious with the right roasting and seasoning.
According to the Farmer’s Almanac, “Beets are a colorful, cool-season crop that is easy to grow from seed in well-prepared soil and grows quickly in full sun. They are a great choice for northern gardeners because they can survive frost and near-freezing temperatures. This also makes them great as a fall crop.”
How to Make the Best Roasted Beet Salad
We believe there are 7 main stays for making a perfect salad. This delicious roasted beet salad hits 5 of the 7 – and the 2 we left off, you can definitely add those in. Let me share with you the details of our salad choices.
1. Choose the Best and Freshest Lettuce
For this Roasted Beet Salad, I chose to use a delicious spring mix. Spring mix is made up of 16 fresh greens and lettuces of varying tastes and textures. My organic spring mix included: red romaine, baby spinach, radicchio, green romaine, red oak leaf, mizuna, red leaf, lollo rosso, arugula, red mustard, green mustard, red chard, frisee, and tatsoi.
2. Add Roasted Vegetables for Sweetness
As you well know, we added in roasted beets to give our salad the vegetable boost that every good salad should be able to claim!
3. Pair Fruit with your Vegetable Selection
To balance our the beets, I added a sprinkling of finely diced red onion. The flavor is a little sweet and a lot savory in this roasted beet salad.
4. Go Nuts, Literally!
Toasted pecans are buttery, tasty and adds a little crunch. Plus, pecans are a healthy fat with a bit of protein and fiber too. Did you know that pecans are also a good source of nutrition? Yes, it’s true. They contain calcium, magnesium and potassium which helps lower blood pressure.
5. Toast up Homemade Croutons
I opted to not included croutons in this salad… if you love croutons, by all means make some homemade croutons and toss them on top!
6. A Bit of High Quality Cheese
As soon as I served this Roasted Beet Salad, my husband immediately asked if we had any goat cheese. Oh man! Yes, organic goat cheese would have been a perfect addition. However, if you are very strict about eating clean then you can try using a plant-based soft nut cheese like Dr. Cow.
7. Make Your Own Salad Dressing
To make a delicious easy salad dressing only takes about 5 more minutes and you and your guests will definitely notice the fresh difference. Most of our homemade dressings use just a few ingredients and a high speed blender. If you only have 5 minutes, then make this Balsamic Vinaigrette recipe.
But if you can spare a few more minutes, then you must consider balsamic glaze. For this roasted beet salad, I used this delicious 2 ingredient Balsamic Glaze from Downshiftology.
A Few Things to Consider: How to Cook Fresh Beets
If you are just learning how to cook fresh beets, then please continue reading. There’s a few things you must know before we get to the recipe.
Protect Everything: How to Cook Fresh Beets
It’s true, you must be mindful before yo begin to cook fresh beets. Beets can literally stain EVERYTHING. Therefore, you must protect EVERYTHING.
- Wear gloves to protect your hands and cuticles from turning pink!
- Use a plastic or bamboo cutting board — not your favorite wooden one.
- If you don’t have another cutting board, then add a few parchment paper layers on top of your cutting board and check regularly for the beets bleeding through.
- If you have marble countertops, protect them at all costs. Like Turmeric, some stains just do not come out.
- If you use our favorite healthy stoneware, definitely use unbleached parchment paper to avoid staining the stone pan.
3 Methods of How to Cook Fresh Beets
Beets can be steamed, boiled, pickled, roasted, or eaten raw (one of my favorite chopped salads is made with raw golden beets), but nothing beats oven-roasted beets. Oven-roasting concentrates the sugar and yields a buttery richness that is borderline decadent.
First, a quick note about boiling and roasting whole – then the recipe!
METHOD #1: BOIL YOUR BEETS
If you want tender beets, then boiling them is a great method. Just place the whole beet into boiling water for about 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the beet. When tender and cooled, then remove the beet peel.
METHOD #2: ROASTED WHOLE
Roasting whole beets requires wrapping the beets in parchment paper and a much longer cooking time. You can likely tell that I’m already not a fan. It’s true. In order to roast beets whole, you need to season the skin of the beet with olive oil and sea salt. Then, place in a 400 degree oven for 45-60 minutes. Check regularly with a fork to see if they are done.
When your roasted whole beets are done, carefully remove the parchment and set them aside to cool. When cool enough to handle you should slice the beets on a paper towels. This allows the beet juice to “bleed” out and the paper towels will absorb the moisture. I also suggest patting the roasted beets gently with paper towels as the vinaigrette will “stick” best to dry beets and not bead off.
METHOD #3: CUT AND ROAST THE BEETS (My favorite method)
Finally – option #3, and it’s my favorite. I much prefer to peel and cut the beets to the size I need for the dish I am creating. For this Roasted Beet Salad, I wanted diced roasted beets so they were easy to eat with a fork and loaded with flavor.
The oven temperature should still be at 400 degrees, but takes a considerable less amount of time. Depending on the size, it could take anywhere from 15-30 minutes. You may notice a little bit of brown staining on the parchment paper. This comes from an oxidative process that deepens the flavor of each beet.
Roasted Beet Salad Recipe 3 Ways…
You definitely have a few options now that you went through the trouble of learning how to cook fresh beets. Here’s a few ways to enjot them!
#1: Roasted Beet Salad as an Entree
My Roasted Beet Salad with Balsamic Reduction is hearty enough to stand solo as a dinner entrée. Just add a few grilled shrimp and some homemade croutons. These can be made by toasting gluten free, whole grain bread cubes tossed in extra virgin olive oil, unrefined sea salt and pepper in a 400 degree oven for about 10 or 12 minutes.
#2: Starter Salad for Holiday Dinner or Dinner Party
This Roasted Beet Salad is also the perfect starter salad for a hosted holiday dinner or dinner party. The crimson red beet bulbs are particularly festive and holiday-ish and the Balsamic Reduction or our homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing makes the salad extra special.
#3: Roasted Beets with Nut or Goal Cheese
However, my favorite way to enjoy my roasted beet salad is as leftovers nestled between two slices of toasted dark bread piled with avocado, arugula and spread with Dr. Cow Tree Nut Cheese (Cashew is my favorite). If you can’t get Dr. Cow’s amazing tree nut cheese, a bit of goat cheese will also work just fine.
Kitchen Favorites
Roasted Beet Salad
Roasted Beet Salad is a dynamic and elegant tasting salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette. Included is a quick guide on How to Cook Fresh Beets.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
Ingredients
- 6 medium beet bulbs, washed and peeled
- 2–3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup orange juice, fresh squeezed
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 cup pecans, finely chopped
- 6 cups arugula or spring mix
- 1/2 cup red onion, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup balsamic vinaigrette glaze
- OPTIONAL: fresh ground pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel the beet bulbs and dice using a sharp knife. I used a bamboo cutting board to avoid the beet pulp from staining my everyday wooden cutting board.
- Put the diced beets into a classic batter bowl. Add the olive oil, orange juice and salt and pepper. Mix until well combined.
- Place the beets in a single layer on a stoneware baking pan. I highly recommend you cover your sheet with parchment paper to prevent from staining.
- Roasted for 15-20 minutes or until tender when pierced with a fork.
- Remove beets from the oven, set aside to cool.
- When ready to serve the Roasted Beet Salad, place the chopped pecans in a small pan on the stove over medium heat. Constantly moving them around to avoid burning. Cook for 3-5 minutes.
- Plate the arugula or spring mix first. Then, sprinkle the salad with red onion add the toasted pecans. Add the roasted beets, drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette glaze and serve at room temperature.
Last Step! If you loved our recipe, leave us a review below. This helps future recipe makers and ensures continued high-quality recipes for years to come!
Beet Benefits
It’s ironic that what makes beets so messy (their color!) is also what makes them so healthy. This two-fold is such a great component of a clean eating diet. Beet’s intensely red color is caused by betacyanin. Which happens to also be a super powerful phytonutrient with anti-aging, cancer protecting antioxidant properties.
In fact, when compared to other vegetable and fruit juices, beet juice ranks close to the top in preventing cell mutations that are commonly linked to cancer. The enzymes in beets are also an excellent liver tonic. They protect your liver from free radical damage and helping to detoxify your body. The health benefits of beats extend beyond their antioxidant and liver-supporting properties too as beets are also a good source of potassium (which is vital to heart health) folate and fiber.
Gina
Thursday 19th of February 2015
I made this tonight but my salad dressing was super think and kind of sour. It was almost like a thick peanut butter consistancy. I definitely could not drizzle only scoop. Any tips?
Ivy Larson
Friday 20th of February 2015
Hi Gina, Oh not to worry! You can just add extra lemon juice to taste. I would just add 1 tablespoon at a time though so you don't make it too runny ;)