Golden Beet Salad

What can I say - I LOVE beets!

When I find a recipe for beets, I must try it. While eating this salad, I realized it is the perfect substitute for fruit salad in the winter months, and it is beautiful. It is inspired from a recipe in Mollie Katzens book 'Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without'. I made it for Thanksgiving dinner, expecting to be the only one eating it, but it was surprisingly popular. I still have some leftovers that are quite tasty.

What's in it

2 bunches golden beets (any color would do, as long as it's not the dark purple)

6 mandarins, plus or minus

3 Tbls raspberry or cider vinegar

1 leek

salt to taste

How it's made

Pre heat oven to 450 degrees. Trim the greens off the beets. Divide beets into two groups, wrapping each group in foil, with a few tablespoons water tossed in. Roast them on a cookie sheet or baking dish up to an hour, until beets are tender enough to pierce with a fork. If you are not up for roasting, you can use this recipe to cook the beets.

Allow beets to cool, cut each end off, then take a spoon and peel off the skins. Cut into 1/2 inch cubes. Place beets in a bowl and immediately toss with vinegar and salt to keep their color.

While beets are cooking, peel the mandarins, and pull into their sections. Remove all the white pulp from the fruit. Cut each section in half, crosswise, with kitchen scissors, and add to bowl with beets.

Thinly slice leek, and add to bowl with mandarins and beets. Cover and marinate for a minimum 2 hours and up to a day. You may reserve some of the leek to add before serving, since the leeks will turn orange (the color of the beets), overnight in the fridge.

I have only made this once, but I imagine apple cubes, dried cranberries, or halved grapes would be a great addition to this salad.

Now you can eat beets!

It took me about a year to figure out how to cook beets.  Not to mention it took the first, oh, 25 years of my life to even taste a beet (and fall in love with them).

Here's my tried and true procedure for cooking beets.  One thing to keep in mind, if you use the dark purple varieties, don't bother using any other color, because the juice will just dye the rest of them purple.  Speaking of dying, the purple beet juice stains pretty easily, so be careful.

Buy one bunch of beets (3-4) of medium size.

Cut off the bushy greens about an inch from the beet. (You can saute and eat the greens if they look fresh).  Don't bother washing the beets, they are usually dirty.

In a large pot, using a steamer basket, bring water to a boil.  

Steam the beets whole for about 30-45 minutes.  Be sure the water doesn't boil out.  The beets are done when a fork inserts easily.  The skin will also look like it's started to separate from the beet, and looks a little dry.

Take the beets out and let them cool a few minutes.  Once cool enough to handle, cut the tops and bottoms off the beets.  Use a spoon to peel the skin off the beets.  This should be easy.  If not, they may not be cooked enough.  Cut the beets into cubes (about a half inch by half inch), and put in a bowl.

Toss the beets with about a tablespoon of vinegar and sprinkle with salt.  The vinegar will keep the beets tasting fresh and keep their color.

I like eating my beets by themselves at room temperature or slightly warm.  I will also put them in salads.  If anyone has any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Now you can eat beets!