Roasted Beets and Endive Salad with Basil-Strawberry Vinaigrette

We’ve all tried canned, sliced beets in factory pickling juices but have you ever roasted your own beets? It’s as easy as a baked potato – foil, oven, you know the routine. But the natural sweetness you get from the beets combined with the flavors you add with this basil-strawberry vinaigrette will have you wondering if you’ll ever go back. Add peppery arugula, pungent gorgonzola and toasted walnuts and you’ve got a meal you never knew you’d love. The salad ingredients were inspired by something we saw in the new Foolproof cookbook by Ina Garten. But the idea for the basil-strawberry vinaigrette came from our suggested pairings page. We posted it separately here in case you want to make it again for another use. You know, this idea of offering healthy recipes from the OT kitchen in January has its benefits!

INGREDIENTS

• 3 medium-sized beets
• 3 heads of Belgian endive
• 4 ounces baby arugula
• ¼ cup Olive This! Basil Olive Oil
• ¼ cup Olive This! Strawberry Balsamic
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 3 ounces gorgonzola cheese
• ½ to 1 cup toasted walnuts
• kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Remove the tops and any stray roots from the beets and scrub clean. Wrap each beet in foil similar to how you would for baked potatoes. This keeps the moisture inside and doesn’t dry out the edges of the beets. Roast them for about 1 hour until tender when tested with a sharp knife.

While the beets are roasting, toast the walnut pieces in a dry skillet over low heat for about 10-12 minutes; flipping occasionally. You may want to set a timer for these; in the OT kitchen we always forget about them!

Start on your vinaigrette. In a small bowl, combine the ¼ cup of basil olive oil, ¼ cup of strawberry balsamic, 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard, ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper and ½ to 1 teaspoon of kosher salt, depending on your taste. Keep in mind this is kosher salt; table salt is saltier than kosher salt so if you’re substituting table salt, adjust accordingly.

This vinaigrette has an emulsifier (the Dijon mustard) allowing you to add all the ingredients at once. You don’t need to whisk in the olive oil in a thin stream. Just whisk all ingredients together and you should end up with a thick, syrupy vinaigrette.

When the beets are done roasting, unwrap them and let them rest for about 10 minutes. When they are cool enough to hold, peel them with a sharp knife. Similar to potato skins, they should come off very easily.

While still warm, cut each beet in half; then cut each half into 4-5 wedges (about 8-10 wedges per beet). You may want to line your cutting board with parchment paper to minimize stains from the beet juice. Place your cut beets into a medium mixing bowl.

Immediately add half the vinaigrette to the warm beets and stir well. According to Ina Garten, beets absorb more vinaigrette when they’re warm.

Cut about ½ inch to 1 inch off the bottom of each head of endive. Then cut each head in half lengthwise. Remove the inner core and cut out and discard the triangular shaped center. Return to the half head, turn over and chop endive in 1/2 inch sections. Toss chopped endive and the 4 ounces of arugula into a separate, large mixing bowl with the remaining vinaigrette.

Place the dressed arugula and endive on a serving platter. Arrange the wedges of beets, the crumbled gorgonzola and toasted walnuts throughout the salad. Drizzle with remaining vinaigrette leftover from the bowl marinating the beets. Serve immediately and enjoy! You’ll quickly realize why roasting your own beets is worth the effort!

SERVES 4-6

Have a comment?  We’d love to hear from you.  Have you tried this dish?  Do you have a variation that you think others will enjoy?  Leave us a comment below.