Recipe: Vegan Roasted Beet Salad with Blood Orange Vinaigrette

Okay, this past week I took a call from one of my good friends that was a little strange. When I answered the phone he said “Hang on” and then connected me into a conference call. He made a quick introduction and brief background of everyone on the call and then said “Scott, are you available to cook food for Simone’s photo shoot on Saturday morning?” Umm… hell yes. Simone and I spoke for a while on a direct call after that and were tossing around a couple ideas that might be fun to shoot. After we got off the phone, I figured that the best way to find something to photograph was to take a trip to Miles Farmer’s Market and see what looked good. Inspiration for me almost always happens in the grocery store.

Low and behold, on the shelf were some fresh crop Chioggia beets. For those of you who are not beet fans, this is also known as the Candy Cane beet because of the red and white stripes. I think that name is completely ridiculous- the color of these beets is a brilliant fuschia with stark white contrasting stripes. Regardless of the name, what a great ingredient to shoot. The picture that came into my head had these vibrant beets paired up with some school bus yellow (golden) beets and some fresh, spicy greens. The whole thing would be brought together with a blood orange dressing and some blood orange segments. Sounds good, right?

The blood oranges look pretty tasty. Photo by Scott Groth

That afternoon, Simone and I discussed the concept and agreed that this would be something cool to do. I picked up the rest of the ingredients (I had only bought the chioggia’s because they looked so good) and cooked a sample portion off to send through some proofs for her to check out. What I found is that when the chioggia’s cook, they either muddle to pink or all the color bleeds out leaving a white beet behind. Neither of these options worked for me. For this salad, we will be slicing the raw chioggia’s thin on a mandolin and soaking in some acidulated water to prevent browning. They taste delicious with the dressing. The golden beets will be roasted and end up tender, punching some serious flavor into the salad. If you want an all raw salad, treat the golden beets the same as the chioggias.

Makes enough salad for 4 sides or 2 meals

Ingredients for the Salad:

1 large chioggia beet, peeled

Juice of 1/2 lemon (fresh or bottled)

1 large yellow beet, washed

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 blood orange, peeled

Arugula greens, washed

Watercress greens, washed

Chives

Salt and Fresh Cracked Pepper

Ingredients for the Blood Orange Vinaigrette

1 blood orange, juiced

1/3 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 scant teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 shallot, minced

Salt and Fresh Cracked Pepper

There are a bunch of different ways to cook a beet. I think that the easiest is to simply take out a square of aluminum foil, drizzle some olive oil in the center of it, plop the beet on the oil and drizzle a little more on top. Sprinkle with some salt and pepper, fold up the aluminum and toss into the oven at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. Fork tender and delicious. Be sure that your beet is thoroughly washed and that the root and stem ends are trimmed. It’s also a good idea to put the foil packet on a baking sheet just in case the beet decides to get cheeky and leak its sugary juices on the floor of your oven. That would be a bummer.

I added some baby spinach and radish sprouts to this composed shot. Photo by Scott Groth

While the beet is cooking, take out a bowl of water and toss in about 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Add in about a cup and a half (doesn’t need to be exact) of water. When you peel the chioggia beet, be sure that you dunk it in the acidulated (lemon juice adds acid to the water, thus acidulated) water to prevent discoloring. The thin slices of beet should be dunked quickly in the lemon water. NOTE: I wouldn’t leave the beet slices just sitting in this water- the colors tend to run out of the beet. When slicing the beet, be careful of your fingers when using the mandolin. If you don’t have a mandolin, slice as thin as you can, still being careful of your fingers.

Peel the blood orange. I sliced mine thin, but you could segment them or prepare them however you would like. Here’s something to look for when buying blood oranges- look for the oranges with a slightly red blush on the peel- it will have more of a red tint to the flesh. That’s the whole point to a blood orange, right? Okay, so now we have just about everything ready for the salad aside from the dressing.

Going a little modern in this one- layered the golden beets down the plate and topped with the goods. Photo by Scott Groth

The first thing to do for the dressing is ream out the other blood orange in a bowl. Because the orange has a high level of pulp, I strained mine through a fine mesh sieve. Add in the vinegar and dijon next. Using a balloon whisk, start to pour in the olive oil slowly, whisking the entire time to get a good emulsification. The dressing should look like pink lemonade…good enough to drink.  Add in the minced shallots, a pinch of salt and a couple grinds of pepper. Give it a taste- if it needs more punch, add in some vinegar SPARINGLY or increase the Dijon for more spice. Again, do this in small amounts. If it has a good acidic taste to it but is missing something, you probably need a touch more salt.

Okay- so the beet should be cooked by now. Take it out of the oven, open the foil and allow to cool. Peel the beet and slice however you would like. When the beet is completely cool, toss it into a bowl. Add in the chioggia beet and the blood orange pieces. Drizzle some dressing over the ingredients. When they are just slightly coated, add in about a tablespoons more of  the dressing. Toss in the arugula and watercress. Mix with your hands to avoid damaging the greens.  If the salad looks dry, add in more by the teaspoon.  Overdressing this salad is a crime.  The dressing should be light and provide a flavorful backdrop to the spice of the arugula and sweetness of the beets.  Serve on plates, bowls or however you think it should be served. I’ve included a couple different serving pictures I took to send through as proofs.

The funny thing is that my vision for this dish was completely turned on its ear during the photo shoot. I was going with a composed look, a modern look and a slightly rustic look when shooting this dish at home. For the professional shoot, Simone went with a completely rustic look that I think turned out amazing. It’s really cool when a new, creative spin is put on a dish. Have to say that I loved the opportunity to cook and style this past weekend.  Probably one of the best days that I have had in a long time.  A big thank you to Simone for allowing me to give her a hand and to Jamie for setting up the conference call.

So, the last word for this post is to eat a beet- they’re good for you. This salad is not only tasty, but is really over the top for presentation purposes. Enjoy.

Who wouldn't want to eat this salad? Look at those chioggia beets! Photo by Scott Groth