This salad reminds me (Amelia) of a disagreement I had last year with a friend. We had just entered French class and were desperately tucking in the last corners of our conversation before the bell rang. At least, I felt desperate, because my friend had told me something I hear all too often: she doesn’t like salad. I was aghast and pushed her to tell me why.
“I just don’t like feeling like I’m eating leaves.” She said. I mean, fair enough, it was a reasonable argument.
But.
Not all salads are leaf-based. Not by a long shot.
Salads can be made with lots of fun things: celery, quinoa, cauliflower, heck, even Jell-O can be salad.
Salad can be a magnificent garden of produce, and produce extends far beyond the green grasp of lettuce. This beauty, for example, boasts succulent oranges and ravishing beets, the only green in sight found in the salty crunch of pistachio. I tried to explain this to my friend, listing off all the other types of salad possible, but the bell rang before I could and it was time to stop speaking English. I sat down across the room from her, watching her expression to see if I’d inspired her.
She looked confused.
Regardless, the moral of the story remains unchanged: salad is amazing, diverse, and can be just as delicious as le plat principal. If you’re looking for an especially colorful dish for dinner tonight, here is recipe you need. Simple, elegant, delicious: this one certainly proves my friend wrong.
We love Cara Cara oranges and used them for this salad. Their peak season in California is December to April.
The story does actually end happily, by the way. For my birthday, this friend gave me notes listing things she loves about me (I guess salad haters can be good people, too). One of them was my love of salads.
So there.
Go make it.
Roasted Beet and Orange Salad
serves 6 as a side
· 3 oranges, peeled and sliced
· 1 pound beets (plus a bit), roasted* and sliced
· 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
· 2 tablespoons olive oil
· 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
· 3 tablespoons pistachios or almonds, toasted and chopped (350 degrees for 6 or 7 minutes)
Peel the orange in your favorite way. My (Kate) mom taught me to score the peel into 5 or 6 sections with a sharp medium-sized knife and then peel off each section (this is great for a sack lunch because it keeps the orange fresh but makes it easy to peel when it comes time to eat). That’s the method we used for these photos. But the slices would look even prettier if you used a big chef knife to cut off the peel before slicing the orange (see the video). That method removes more of the pith.
Slice the beets according to their size and shape. If they are very small, cut them in half. If they are small, cut them in quarters. If they are medium, try slicing them in half. Then put the cut side down and slice it into half circles. If they are large, cut into thick rounds, then decide whether to cut those rounds into long thin slices or into pizza wedges.
In a small jar with a lid, combine the vinegar and salt and shake them to dissolve the salt. Add the olive oil and shake again.
Put the beets, oranges, and 2/3 of the pistachios in a serving bowl. Add the dressing and stir. Sprinkle the remaining pistachios on top and serve.
*Both Trader Joe’s and Costco sell pre-roasted, pre-peeled beets. If you’d like to roast them yourself, wrap them in tinfoil, then roast at 400 degrees. If the beets are small, wrap three or so together and check at 50 minutes. If they’re medium, wrap them individually and check at 70 minutes. If they’re very large, they might need to roast for 90 minutes. You know the beets are done when a sharp knife easily pierces through to the center (unwrap them before performing the knife test unless you want tinfoil chips in your finished dish). Out of the oven, let them cool until you can handle them without burning yourself. Unless they’re undercooked or cooled completely, the peels will slip off easily. If you don’t live in a drought zone, it’s helpful to peel them under running water.
