We watch a lot of cooking shows and we recently watched a Masterchef episode where the contestants were cooking in one of the judges restaurants. They showed this delicious beet salad that I had to try to replicate. Granted, the replication is based on description and look only. It is pretty easy, and has a nice wow factor.

Salad Ingredients

• Golden or red beets
• Arugula or other delicate lettuce
• Garlic cloves
• Cashews or nut of your choice
• Goat cheese
• Olive oil
• Sherry Vinaigrette (I added a recipe for this below if you would prefer to make it)

Sherry Vinaigrette Ingredients (Small Batch)

• 1-1/2 tbsp sherry vinegar (white wine or rice wine vinegar can be substituted)
• 1 tbsp minced shallots
• 1 clove pressed garlic
• 1/2 tsp oregano (fresh minced or dried)
• 1/4 tsp thyme (fresh or dried)
• 1 tsp dijon mustard
• 1 pinch sugar
• 3 tbsp olive oil

DIRECTIONS

1. If making the vinaigrette, mix all ingredients together in a measuring cup and whisk. Cool in fridge while you build the salad.
2. Wash the outside of your beets. DO NOT trim the root. Gently pull off the greens, but do not use a knife to cut them off. Breaking the skin of the beet before roasting will result in losing some of the vibrant colour.
3. Preheat oven to 450*C
4. Lay out some aluminum foil, large enough to envelope all the beets that you are roasting. Depending on how many people you are making this for, you may need a larger sheet of aluminum foil. Drizzle olive oil on the foil in the centre. Roll the beets in the oil, making sure to fully coat the outside of the beet.
5. Slice some garlic cloves in half and add them to the beets on the sheet of aluminum foil. Make sure they are also coated in the olive oil.
6. Fold the foil closed around the beets and garlic and roast on a pan in the oven for 30 minutes. Flip packet half-way through cooking so that there are no dark marks on the beets.
7. Once beets are cooked, let cool to room temperature. Cut the root and top off, and peel the beet. The skin should easily pull off.
8. Place 1 – 2 peeled beets (depending on size of beet) on each plate and lightly drizzle some of the vinaigrette over it. Place the roasted garlic cloves on the plate around the beets.
9. In a small bowl, lightly dress the arugula or lettuce in the vinaigrette. Place dressed lettuce on top of the beets.
10. Sprinkle nuts and goat cheese over the top of the lettuce & beets.
11. Serve and enjoy!

Chit Chat POrtion

This salad ended up as tasty as I had hoped. I love beets, especially the golden beets that we have grown this year, so I knew that I had to try to recreate this salad from Claudio Aprile’s Origin restaurant. The only item I missed was some pickled onion, but I threw in some roasted garlic. I am definitely going to have to try some pickled onion at least one of the times that I make this salad. Now I feel that I need to go to one of is Origin restaurants and hope that this item is still on the menu so that I can taste what his is like, since I am basing mine solely on description and photos.

Isn’t that one of the best things about watching cooking shows, getting the inspiration to either re-create a dish you see, or try personalizing a dish based on an idea that you saw on one of the shows. No? Just me? It’s the reason I love cooking shows. I am no chef, but I certainly love cooking when the mood strikes. We used to watch Hell’s Kitchen all the time, so naturally I had to try cooking a beef wellington since Ramsay is always screaming “Where’s the F*&#ing Wellington!”. It was delicious, and I would definitely make it again. That one, I was able to actually find Ramsay’s recipe online and followed it, so there was a lot less guess work on that one. I still have yet to make one of the risottos. Maybe once the weather cools a bit.

In the meantime, I am going to keep finding ways to enjoy all of our garden goodies. The beets, shallots, oregano and thyme all came fresh out of our garden minutes before they were turned into this salad and dressing. The lettuce came from my co-workers garden since our shade bed is still under landscaping construction. It’s such a treat to do my produce shopping in the back yard. I swear this salad tasted that much better because it was so fresh. Could just be that I grew it so my brain had a biased reaction. Either way, I’m in love with this salad.

Anyway, I hope you love this recipe and that you tweak it and make it your own like I did. If you hit jackpot on a new combination, please share your new recipe with me! Happy eating.