Belly Dance Beet Salad
This roasted beet salad was one of the stars of our recent Whole30 grill-out to make sure Melissa and Dallas of Whole9Life were properly fed during their stay in Austin. This salad is exotic, but not fussy or too weird – the flavors make sense but are also, magically, unexpected.
This recipe is for two bunches of beets, so it makes enough for a few meals. It’s easily halved if you don’t want to dine on it for days. Directions for roasting the beets and additional suggestions at the end. (Recipe adapted from farm+house+table, the beautiful people who bring me Farmhouse Delivery produce every week.)
Ingredients:
2 bunches beets, roasted and sliced OR shortcut! use 2 (14.5 oz.) cans of beets
1 bunch spring onions, thinly sliced, OR freshly-chopped chives
1/3 cup pistachios, toasted and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
pinch of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 cup olive oil
1. Combine orange juice, vinegar, spices, and salt and pepper in a small bowl.
2. Whisking continuously, drizzle in the olive oil. Use your CrossFit muscles to keep that whisk whirling.
3. Toss the beets, spring onions, and pistachios into a large bowl. Lovingly dance them around in the dressing.
This tastes best if you allow the flavors to meld for an hour before serving, and I like it at room temperature. You do what you like!
To roast the beets:
Wash them but don’t bother peeling; the skins grow tender during roasting and you save yourself a step AND avoid red fingers. Keep the beets whole – or cut in half if they’re very large — for roasting. Toss the beets with about 1 tablespoon of olive oil and roast in a 375 oven for roughly 45-60 minutes. I don’t know how long I left mine in the oven – just poke one with a fork and when it’s tender, they’re done.
To toast pistachios:
You can toast them in the oven on a cookie sheet for the last 7-10 minutes of the beet roasting. (Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn!) Or, if you forget the way I did, just throw them in a skillet over medium-high heat on the stove and shake ‘em around for about 2-3 minutes. Again, keep a vigilant eye to avoid charring. When they’re cool, coarsely chop them (which makes it sound like you should yell cuss words at them [coarse language]).
The oil:
I thought the salad was a little oily, so on my next attempt, I might try only 1/3 cup olive oil instead of the 1/2 cup.
Cumin:
The original recipe did not include cumin, but you know how I feel about cumin. Spice. Of. Life. I think next time, I’m going to try adding 1/4 teaspoon ground to the dressing. (If you do this, can you let me know how it goes?)
The shape of the beets:
I cut them into half moon slices about 1/4-inch think. I’m curious about what would happen to the experience if I sliced them thin-thin… and if I tried them in thicker chunks. Again, if you experiment, share the results!
The green tops:
Do not toss these! Promise me you won’t toss these! They’re delicious and super nutrition power-packed. Here’s what you do: wash them. A lot. Rinse off all the grit. Then coarsely chop and throw them in a pan with a little water and steam ’til tender. THEN – and this is what turns them from soggy greens into deliciousness – add a little coconut or olive oil, plenty of salt, and a few garlic cloves. Sauté ’til they’re the way you like ‘em and eat. Feel great about using the entire beet!
(I just got this idea which I’m totally doing next time: Pile the hot greens on a plate and top with the room temperature salad. Booyah!)
Tags: beets, dino-chow, Middle Eastern, paleo
25 Responses to “Belly Dance Beet Salad”
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Just found your blog …LOVE IT and luv the beet salad … yummmmm …!!!
… and I read about your hypothyroid situation – I have fought that one for the past 10 years (synthyroid 150mcg and Cytomel 25mcg x 2-3) – you will figure out what works best for you, but sounds like you are already on that road !!
good stuff all over your blog
Hi, Elizabeth! Glad you like the blog! Yes, thyroid is a total pain, but it seems to be getting sorted out. I'm on 112mdg right now, but might go a little higher still — next check-in with endo is in August.
Do you slice the beets before or after you roast them?
I recommend roasting the beets either whole or just cut in half so they don't get too dry… then slice them after you're finished roasting.
That beet salad was GENIUS. We are STILL talking about it. Yum. And yum again.
Dallas
Boy, I've made this for two parties and twice just for myself. I absolutely love it! Thank-you!
Francine
Hey, Anonymous… so glad you like it. Thanks for letting me know!
This was just posted on chowstalker.com a few days ago, so we gave it a try. DELISH! Husband made it last night while I was at the gym. The beets could have roasted a little bit longer, as I like my veggies really tender, but the flavor was so nice. We paired it with homemade gyro meat from stuffimakemyhusband.blogspot.com. I'm having leftovers for lunch right now. Thanks!! ~Karyn
Karyn–> How fun that your husband whipped this up while you were working out. WIN! Glad you liked it! I saw that homemade gyro recipe, too… definitely want to try that one!
I finally got around to making this beet dish. WHAT TOOK ME SO LONG? God. It was amazing. Thank you for the recipe!
And now I’m thinking, “Why haven’t I made this since last year?” Back to the kitchen with me!
Mel-
I found your site about two weeks ago, have been gradually working my way through a bunch of the recipes. So many are so delicious! thank you!
Finally commenting because had the best breakfast in a while thanks to this recipe…
I sauteed the beet greens w/ a slice of ham and a little bit of onion (left over from making the salad), then threw the cover on the pan after putting two eggs in to poach. put all of that on a plate (which probably would have still been good on it’s own, but awfully similar to what I eat most mornings) and then topped it with some of the beet salad (and a definite drizzle of the dressing!). SO GOOD. thank you for the inspiration and reminding me to use the greens!
Hooray! I’m glad you made magic with the beet tops. I had some this week, too, and they are SO good.
I love your breakfast — it sounds super yummy and packed with power food. Thanks so much for sharing. I’m glad you’re enjoying the recipes.
Just fixed this tonight! Excellent.
Glad you liked it. The real question is: did it make you want to belly dance?!
Making this salad now (beets in the oven) and realized I’m out of Red Wine vinegar, any suggested substitutes? I have just about every other kind…
White wine, champagne, cider, and rice vinegar should all work just fine. Hope you like it!
Amazing…even my 2 and 4 year old were begging for seconds. WONDERFUL! Only changes were that I caramelized the onions because we didn’t have spring sweet onions, and used cider vinegar (thanks for the suggestion) because I was out of red wine. mmmmm….good! Thanks again for ANOTHER delicious meal!
This is the first preparation of beets I’ve ever liked! I sliced the beets about 1/2 inch thick and grilled them, otherwise I followed the recipe exactly. The orange and pistachio perfectly compliment the grilled beets. Thanks for the recipe!
balsamic vinegar worked awesomly
This is sooo good. Made it exactly like the recipe the first time except used pecans. This time I’m doubling it. YUMMY!
This is really good! But the volume of dressing seems excessive and I misread the directions only using 1/4 cup oil .
Instead of 28 oz of beets I have 24 oz not sure that would make a big difference, though.
Oh we’ll, I will save the extra dressing for salad, it’s yummy!
This has been my go to potluck salad for a while now! I up the spices and add in some sweet potatoes, roasted garlic and thai red chilli paste. Last week I added slices of blood orange.
-thanks!
Question: do you roast beets if using canned?
Just stumbled onto this and a few other older recipes – looks so tasty.
No need to roast if using canned — just skip to the step where you toss with dressing.