Golden Beet Salad ith Walnuts and Goat Cheese

Another day dedicated to trying to get all the electronics working.  So the meal I was going to cook did not get finished, but I had these wonderful golden beets that I bought from Whole Foods and found this recipe that was absolutely delicious.  Because the beets were golden instead of red, Jim pronounced the meal delicious before he discovered it was beets!  I found this on FoodTV.com it is from their Network Kitchen.  It serves 4, but is all gone.  I would not serve this as a first course as I thought one serving was very filling.  Read the whole recipe as the beets need to marinate for 2 hours before final assembly.  Blog is messy as things are still not corrected.     

Ingredients:

1 ½ # medium beets minus tops (I used Golden beets)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 T red wine vinegar

1/3C EVOO

½ C walnuts

1 bunch arugula, trimmed and torn

½ medium head escarole, torn (I used a container of mixed greens that contained arugula)

4 oz goat cheese, crumbled

Directions:

1.      Put the beets in a saucepan with water to cover and season generously with salt.  Bring to a boil over high heat and cook until for tender, about 20 minutes.  (I had 3 beets weighing as it should and my beets took 40 minutes.)

2.      When the beets are cool enough to handle, peel them-skins should slide right off with a bit of pressure from your fingers.  If they don’t, use a paring knife to scrape off any bits that stick.  I would say that if you cannot peel in this manner, they are not cooked.

3.      Cut the beets in bite-sized wedges.  I cut them in 1/8’s and then cut the 1/8’s in half. 

4.      Whish the vinegar with the salt and pepper in a medium bowl. 

5.      Whisk in the EVOO in a slow steady stream to make a dressing. 

6.      Toss the cut beets in the dressing; set aside to marinate for 2 hours.

7.      Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spread the nuts on a baking sheet.  Oven toast the nuts until golden brown about 8 minutes.  Cool.

      8.      The recipe says to toss the greens and beets, divide between 4 plates and divide the cheese  and nuts on top.  I tossed it all in a bowl and served.  I also was pre-making tomorrow night’s dinner which involves bacon.  As it finishes they said the bacon was the cooks treat so Jim put all that bacon on his salad. 

This is a definite keeper of a salad.