Last week I had tons of fun asking people what they were serving for their Thanksgiving dinner. The answers were marvelous, I could write a book about family food traditions. One friend makes special Thanksgiving tomato aspic as a separate salad course, and another always serves carrot cake for dessert. One friend insists roast beef is infinitely more crowd-pleasing than turkey. An out of town college buddy emailed that he takes charge of the day by drinking a Bloody Mary and writing a check to a caterer. My neighbor married into a family that serves holiday sauerkraut - there’s just no telling what folks are eating out there! I decided to take a little blogging break while everyone celebrated with their own family favorites. My family enjoyed our usual Thanksgiving table of multiple starches plus turkey and ham with a weird green bean casserole thrown in, maybe for color – it’s tradition. What can you do but eat one of everything and try not to regret it the next day!
While not exactly regretting any Thanksgiving eating, it seems like a good idea to introduce a pretty holiday salad to our Christmas table this year. I’ll probably experiment a bit, but the red and green theme just calls out to two of my very favorite foods, roasted beets and spinach. After that it’s all a piece of cake – or pie.
I spent years thinking beets were the most disgusting food in the world, then I had REAL beets, fresh ones, not from a can or a jar and it was love at first bite! You can boil, or sauté beets, but roasting beets is the easiest way to go. You wash the beets, put them on a sheet of aluminum foil, pour on a little olive oil and add some salt and pepper, seal the foil, and roast in a 350 degree oven for about an hour and a half. After they cool the skins slip right off. Your fingers turn pink; it’s kind of festive. Slice your roasted beets and, well, they are perfect just like that. For your salad, add fresh spinach, a bit of orange – love that combination- toasted almonds, olive oil and finally a small grating of Pecorino Romano, or any good cheese that’s conveniently in the fridge. Irresistible! This salad is a party on a plate. Make Roasted Beet Salad, as part of your December celebrations and you’ll see what I mean. Enjoy!
Ingredients
* See note
1 bunch of beets, trimmed and scrubbed
1 Tbsp olive oil (2 Tbsp more later for dressing)
½ tsp each salt and pepper
1 package of pre-washed spinach
2 oranges (Navel are seedless and easier to use)
¼ cup toasted almonds, chopped
2 Tbsp olive oil
Pecorino Roman, grated or sliced with a vegetable peeler in thin strips
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Put beets on a large sheet of aluminum foil, coat with 1 Tbsp of olive oil and the salt and pepper. Seal foil tightly making a packet and roast for about an hour and a half.
Cool beets until you can handle them and rub off the skins. You can use a paper towel to keep fingers a little cleaner.
Slice beets.
Cut peel away from oranges holding them over a bowl to catch any juice.
Holding peeled orange carefully slice into segments and drop in the bowl.
Put spinach on a serving platter or in a salad bowl.
Top with beets and orange segments.
Mix 2 Tbsp of olive oil in the bowl with orange juice left from slicing oranges.
Pour over salad. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Sprinkle with almonds and top with cheese.
Voila! Your salad is all dressed up and ready for dinner!
* So easy to make substitutions
You can use candy cane beets (red and white stripped) if you can find them.
Arugula is just as yummy as spinach.
Actually any toasted nut is fine.
Adding onion, especially red is also pretty
Goat cheese or Feta would be good cheese choices
Here’s the funny one and it messes up the Christmas theme, my husband asked for avocado on his instead of beets – go figure!
Added a little grilled salmon for healthy dinner
