Roasted Beet Salad with Ginger and Garlic Vinaigrette
“My grandmother made a valiant effort to turn me on to beets,” Miri Rotkovitz writes in “Bubbe and Me in the Kitchen.”
“She sang their praises as fortifiers of the blood, pointed out their gorgeous fuchsia hue, and offered them up sliced and pickled, or puréed into borscht.
“She got nowhere with me… I didn’t take to beets’ mineral sweetness and unusual texture until I was well into my twenties, when I first tasted beets from a New York City Greenmarket, roasted and served in a salad like this one.”
Makes 4 servings
2 medium red beets, cleaned and trimmed of their greens
2 medium golden beets, cleaned and trimmed of their greens
1⁄4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for the beets
1⁄4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar or white wine vinegar
1 piece (1 to 1 1⁄2 inches) fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
2 large cloves garlic, peeled, smashed, and finely chopped
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
5 ounces mixed baby greens, rinsed and spun dry
Prep time: 15 minutes. Cooking time: 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Rub the skin of each beet with a little olive oil. Wrap the red beets loosely in a piece of foil and wrap the golden beets loosely in another piece of foil. (If you wrap them together, the colors will bleed).
Lay the wrapped beets on a rimmed baking sheet and place in preheated oven. Roast 45 to 60 minutes, or until tender. The larger the beets, the longer they’ll take to roast. Remove sheet from oven and set aside until beets are cool enough to handle. Peel the beets, and cut them into bite-size pieces.
In a medium bowl, make the vinaigrette by whisking together the olive oil and vinegar. Add ginger and garlic and whisk to emulsify. Season with salt and pepper.
Place baby greens in a large bowl and top with the beets. Drizzle about half the vinaigrette over the beets and greens, then toss to coat. Serve immediately, with remaining dressing on the side.
Note: If you can’t find golden beets, more reds are fine. And if you’re lucky enough to find beets with their greens attached, save them — the leaves and tender stems are delicious sautéed in olive oil and garlic.