Pile it high. It looks beautiful!
I didn’t discover my love for beets until a year or so ago. Memories of pickled beets on my salad at the little diner kept me away from beets for years.Â
The earthy sweetness of the beets and the pears are a delicious combination.
When combined with a sharper goat’s cheese and a dark green such as baby spinach – good and good for you.
Ingredients
For Salad
1/3 pound baby spinach
2 medium-sized beets
1 ripe, sweet pear (such as forelle)
1/4 cup crumbled goat’s cheese
2 tablespoons roasted and crushed hazlenuts
snipped chives
a few pitted kalamata olives (optional)
Dressing:
drizzle high-quality olive oil and sherry vinegar over the salad, to taste
salt and pepper
Preparation
Roast Beets:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Individually wrap the beets in aluminum foil and roast them for 45 minutes to an hour, until they are tender when pricked with a fork. allow the beets to cool, then peel them. The peel should slip off easily. Cut the beets in half and slice thinly or use a mandolin.
Cut the pear in half and remove the seeds and core. Slice the pear halves thinly lengthwise or use a mandolin.
Place spinach on a wide platter, scatter the sliced beets and pears on the top, then the crumbled goat’s cheese and finally the toasted hazlenuts and snipped chives. I usually add a few pitted Kalamata olives, but you don’t have to.
Sprinkle the salad with sherry vinegar and olive oil, salt and pepper.