I threw together this hearty beet salad for my lunch last week, and it tasted so good that I thought I’d share the recipe for you. The beet salad recipe was inspired by various salads I’ve enjoyed over the years at New York City area restaurants. I’m not sure why, but beets have always been popular salad ingredients at these restaurants. Most of them serve fancy golden beets, which are great if you have them, but you can use plain red beets. If you have fresh beets, you’ll need to prepare them ahead of time by cleaning them, cutting the stems (but not into the beet itself, which will leach out the color and nutrients during cooking), boiling them, and then peeled the skin off. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour to do this, but it’s a fairly easy process, so with a little planning you can cook the beets ahead of time.
You can add cooked wheat berries for added crunch, taste, and whole grain goodness.
Oh, and you can also use canned beets. It’s not cheating. It’s efficiency. Or so I tell myself.
For this beet salad recipe, you will need:
- Half a cup of red beets, cooked and sliced
- 2 cups of Romaine lettuce
- Quarter of a small onion, thinly sliced
- 1/4 can of chick peas, rinsed, drained
- 2 ounces of low fat feta cheese
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Splahs of balsamic vinegar
- Salt and pepper to taste.
You can also adjust the ratio of oil and vinegar to suit your taste.
Cook the beets, drain and slice them. In a large plate, clean the lettuce, shred, and arrange. Layer beets on top, then add chick peas and onions. Add dressing, salt and pepper, and enjoy!
Jeanne Grunert is a certified Virginia Master Gardener and the author of several gardening books. Her garden articles, photographs, and interviews have been featured in The Herb Companion, Virginia Gardener, and Cultivate, the magazine of the National Farm Bureau. She is the founder of The Christian Herbalists group and a popular local lecturer on culinary herbs and herbs for health, raised bed gardening, and horticulture therapy.
