Spring Beet and Goat Cheese Salad

The perfect spring salad - with toasted cashew and a grapefruit vinaigrette

I love beets but don't typically make beet salads due to the time it takes to boil, cool, and peel beets. Fortunately, however, there are a ton of great products in the market that feature pre-steamed beets. As I mentioned in an earlier post I am obsessed with Melissa’s produce products so I decided to give their steamed and packaged beets (not canned) a try for this salad. They didn’t disappoint.

One trick I employed here to add flavor to the beets, and offset the earthiness that can taste “dirty” to some people, is to toss the beets in the grapefruit juice (or vinegar if you don’t like grapefruit) and pickled ginger to marinate before finishing the salad. This allows the flavors of the acid to penetrate the pores of the beets and adds a ton of flavor.

This is the ultimate spring salad - studded with bold flavors, colors, and most importantly, nutrients!

If you want to step it up a notch, you can add some roasted chicken, shrimp, fish, steak or any of your favorite proteins.

If you can’t find pre-cooked beets, just boil them until they are tender - cool, peel, and slice.

A note about the nutrients in beets:

1. Beets are an excellent source of antioxidants. These natural compounds protect your cells from damage and may even lower the risk of diseases like heart disease and cancer.

2. Beets have anti-inflammatory properties. Studies have shown that beet juice reduces inflammation across your whole body. One study in 2014 found that betalain capsules with beetroot extract helped relieve joint pain due to osteoarthritis

3. Beets are high in nitrates. The nitrates in beets are also to thank for helping lower blood pressure if you have hypertension, according to more research on this mighty vegetable. Indeed, beet juice has been shown in studies to reduce both systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

4. Beets are a great source of potassium. Potassium helps create more flexible blood vessels for lower blood pressure, adding another benefit for cardiovascular and heart health benefits. All of these are critical for good health — and all well-sourced from beets!

Ingredients:

1 cup red beets, cooked and quartered

1 cup of yellow beets, cooked and diced

1 tablespoon pickled ginger

1 large grapefruit - peeled and segmented (see notes below on technique)

1/2 cup goat cheese

1/2 cup toasted cashews lightly chopped

2 slices of speck (or prosciutto) cut into ribbons

2 cups wild arugula

2 cups mixed greens

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1 tablespoon sea salt or kosher salt

1 cup sliced baby tomato

For the dressing:

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

2 tablespoons grapefruit juice (save from cutting grapefruits)

6 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon honey

1 tablespoon freshly sliced chives

Instructions:

Toss your beets with the pickled ginger and a dash of the grapefruit juice and allow to marinate for about 10 minutes. While they are marinating, combine all of the ingredients for the vinaigrette and whisk vigorously in a bowl or shake in a jar with a lid.

To make the salad, toss all of the ingredients together. Leave some goat cheese and grapefruit segments to the top at the end. Drizzle with the dressing as you toss using only as much as you need to coat the salad lightly. I also like to drizzle the dressing on the outside of the bowl so the dressing isn’t too heavy on a particular leaf.

NOTE:

To segment the grapefruit (or any citrus) peel the citrus then use your knife to slice the citrus out between the white pith. Save the remaining pitch and fruit to squeeze for the juice.