Roasted Beet Salad

It always confuses me that my picky-eater husband loves beets. I cannot tell you how many clients I have interviewed that turn up their noses at beets. It is one of the more widely hated vegetables. Yet, the husband loves them.

However, one of my clients does like beets. In fact she grows them. Last week I plucked a few from her garden and made this salad for her. I decided the husband would like it to, so I made it for him (and me, I like beets too) as well.

Here's the ingredients:

4-8 beets (try to make sure they are similar in size)
1 Tablespoon Olive oil
1 Tablespoon Balsamic vinegar
2 ounces blue cheese (I like Point Reyes the best, but they didn't have any at the store so I tried this instead, it was good)
1/4 cup pecans, toasted
a sprinkle of chives

To start I set the oven to 450 degrees. Next I trimmed the root and stem off of each beet, then wrapped each one in foil (some of the beets I had were small so I wrapped 2-3 of them together so they were closer in size to the larger ones).

I popped these into the oven for about 45 minutes (these beets were about golf ball size, smaller beets will take less time to cook, larger beets will take more). When they were tender, I took them out of the oven and set them aside to cool for a few minutes. Once they were cool enough to touch, I donned some rubber gloves (a very important step if you don't want bright red hands for three days) and then rubbed each of them with paper towels to remove the skins.

Next I chopped each of the beets into half-inch pieces then drizzled them with oil and vinegar (putting the oil and vinegar on the beets while they are still a little warm helps the beets to absorb the liquid a little as they cool). Next I put the cutting board into the fridge until the beets were cool.

I put the beets on the plate then sprinkled them with the cheese, pecans and chives.

Pretty, no? But how does it taste? Delicious. The sweetness of the beets plays off the saltiness of the cheese and the tang of the vinegar and the nuts add a lovely crunch. If you are one of the many self-proclaimed beet haters, I encourage you to try this dish (or if you are a beet lover, take this to your next potluck and see if you can make any converts).