Resplendent Baby Golden Beet Salad

golden baby beet salad
Roasted Baby Golden Beet, Gala Apple, Kumquat
Raw Sheep’s Milk French Roquefort, Pistachio
Dandelion, Butterhead, Roasted Poblano Vinaigrette
Tricolor Viola & Wild Mustard Flower Garnish

Roasted tarragon-scented sweet soft baby golden beets are paired with tart-crisp apple, bitter-spiky dandelion, creamy-smooth butter lettuce, zingy kumquat, tangy Roquefort, rich pistachios and a playfully-spicy poblano chile vinaigrette. It’s a very refreshing, harmonious, and somewhat surprising salad – which I submit to this month’s 5 Star Makeover Cooking Group Challenge featuring BEETS.

The 5 Star Makeover Cooking Group hosted by Natasha the 5 Star Foodie & Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks! is an outstanding monthly event for sharing ideas and creating gourmet makeovers of selected classic dishes or flavor combinations. It continues to be a great source of inspiration and my absolute pleasure to be on the team. Please visit their blogs this coming Friday to enjoy the round-up of super-creative beets recipes from this talented cooking group.

Components

tarragon roasted baby golden beets
Beets
trimmed peeled baby golden beets
tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper
roast, covered, with several sprigs of tarragon
at 425° for about 25 minutes
let come to room temperature, slice in half lengthwise

fire-roasted poblano chiles, poblano vinaigrette

Two Poblano Chile Sauces

4 medium fire-roasted poblano chiles
skinned, seeded, fine-dice

Poblano Puree
roast 1 shallot in 3 T. olive oil at 375° for 30 minutes, let cool slightly
puree 2 chiles with the shallot & olive oil, plus 2 T. water in a blender until smooth
strain through a fine-mesh sieve, season with salt & pepper

Poblano Vinaigrette
combine 2 chiles with 1 T. rice vinegar
whisk in 3 T. olive oil, season with salt & pepper

golden beet salad,

Gala Apple
julienne, toss with lime juice

Kumquat
sliced and seeded

Roquefort
raw sheep’s milk french roquefort, crumbled

Pistachio
roasted and chopped

Greens
dandelion and butterhead

Flowers
edible tricolor viola and wild mustard

poblano chile vinaigrette

To Combine

gently toss beets, apple, kumquat, roquefort
with poblano vinaigrette

dandelion, poblano vinaigrette

To Compose

arrange dandelion leaves on a platter
dot with poblano puree
top dandelion with 2 butter lettuce leaves
arrange beet mixture over the lettuce
sprinkle with pistachio
garnish with flowers

Resplendent Golden Baby Beet Salad

Resplendent Baby Golden Beet Salad

Inspiration from my hero, Chef Charlie Trotter and the passionate Farmers of Santa Paula, California.

beet fettuccine

It’s raining beets. Hallelujah. It’s raining beets.
Baby Golden Beet Salad is Part 1 of a two part beet-centric vegetarian meal.
Part 2: Baby Candy Stripe Beet Fettuccine, Beet Syrup is now posted here.

41 thoughts on “Resplendent Baby Golden Beet Salad”

  1. Now this is a salad!! Every component is so well thought out and brings the perfect touch to the dish. And I love the color scheme you’ve chosen…it makes it feel like spring is in the air. 😉 Part 2 sounds like a winner also!

  2. Resplendent indeed! Those are the sweetest little beets and I love that you always make use (and introduce me to) all the bounty of your area of the universe. This is a beautiful and innovative creation — and I can’t believe it’s only the first course!

  3. WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! Oh my goodness, this is exquisite. This should win awards – I can’t get it onto my IWANT TO MAKE THIS! Pinterest board fast enough *mad clicking*

  4. That is truly a work of art – but a highly edible one. you have a gift for creating wonderful flavor and texture and color combinations.

  5. Your presentation is stunning! It makes me smile as just looking at it. I’ve seen a combination between beets and apple/pear. It sounds delicious. Love the color of this dish too! I’m bummed to not be able to participate the challenge this month :-/

  6. You go girl… that is like a painting. Roquefort and beets are a classic pairing. I love the way you built the dish up like a flower arrangement. I am really digging the poblano addition too… very interesting choice with the beets… provocative… like that. Great and beautiful dish

  7. This is one of my favorite dishes of yours to date! What irony considering I’m not the biggest fan of beets. You just make it look so divine, pretty and too artsy to eat! Lovely work!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.