Warm Beet, Orange & Black Olive Salad Recipe

I think I’m truly developing a love for roasted beets. It’s weird – I’ve never given them much thought throughout my life, but since I began writing on this website and preparing all sorts of different recipes, I’ve grown to appreciate them. They’re different. They’ve got great texture, a rather pleasing taste and have some serious health benefits to them. Think vitamin c, fiber, potassium, manganese and B vitamin folate. They’re a really good source of nitrates, which lowers your blood pressure and phytonutrients, which fight cancer. All-in-all, beets are good for you and add a lot to a dish.

The Recipe

Today’s recipe is simple. There isn’t much effort involved past roasting the beets. That will take a while, but once they’re done in the oven, it’s smooth sailing. It’s just a bit of prepping and assembling after that.

I guess I’d consider this a summer or fall salad, considering beets are harvested throughout both of those seasons. It’s light, healthy and flavorful. And with any salad that includes roasted anything, I’m sure folks who eat it will be impressed.

For this recipe, please feel free to use any size beet you’d like. I’ll write “3 Large Beets” in the ingredient list below, but really, you can use anything. As long as there’s enough to go around or that is the equivalent of three large ones. If I had five smaller beets, I would have been just as happy to enjoy them in my salad. Just remember, the smaller the beet, the less cooking time that’s necessary.

Ingredients

Serves: 4

3 Large Beets
Regular Olive Oil
Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
2 Seedless Oranges
1/2 Small Red Onion, Thinly Sliced
3 Tablespoons Parsley, Chopped
5 Tablespoons Black Olives, Pitted and Halved
2 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
5 Cups Red Lettuce, Gently Packed
Regular Table Salt
Ground Black Pepper

Step-by-Step Instructions

I found this recipe in Yotam Ottolenghi‘s fabulous cookbook called Plenty. While I changed some things up a bit, his recipe was certainly my inspiration.

Before I begin, I’d like to talk about olives for a moment. With this salad, you can imagine that the style of ingredient can have a dramatic impact on what you’ll eat after it’s been prepared. Laura and I purchase our olives by the can, most of the time. We only buy the fancy stuff on rare occasions. In this case, I used canned black olives because they’re really easy to deal with. If I were to serve this to someone or prepare it for a special occasion, I’d go for the good olives. You know – the ones in the jar that are imported. Those wrinkly ones that make you crinkle your nose when you eat them. Those are incredibly great tasting olives and if you want to take this recipe up a notch, go with something on that level.

Pre-Heat the Oven

Go ahead and pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Then, arrange the racks so one of them is in the center position.

Roast & Prepare the Beets

To start, clean the beets and trim off both ends of the root. Then, if you have large ones, cut them in half. If you have smaller ones, you can keep them whole. Place them in an oven safe container and drizzle some regular olive oil over them. Mix them up a bit until they are well coated with the oil. I’d say no more than a few teaspoons of oil.

Cover the dish you place the beets in with aluminum foil and let roast for 45 minutes.

When the beets are finished cooking, remove the dish from the oven, remove the foil and let them cool for about 15 minutes. Then, remove each beet from the dish, place on a surface and pinch the skin off. Once you begin this step, you’ll see that the skin slides off easily.

Next, cut each beet into wedges and add to a medium sized bowl. Drizzle some extra-virgin olive oil over the beets and add a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix well.

This is the star ingredient in this dish.

Prepare Oranges

Peel both oranges and then pull each section of the interior from the others until each section is independent. Then, cut each section in half and place everything in a medium sized bowl. Drizzle some more extra-virgin olive oil over the oranges, just as you did in the previous step. Also, add a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper, as you did above as well. Mix until coated.

Combine Ingredients

In a large bowl, add the sliced onion, parsley and olives. Also add 3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, along with the red wine vinegar. Finally, you can add a pinch or two of salt and pepper to taste.

Mix those ingredients well until everything is coated with the oil and vinegar. Then, add in the beets and the orange and mix again. This combination forms the basis of the salad.

Plate & Serve

To plate this salad, add some red lettuce to each dish. Then, scoop out some of the salad mixture and place it on top of the lettuce. Be sure to spread the salad mixture out, so the flavors blend with the lettuce. Serve.

The Final Salad

See? I told you this one was easy. It’s straightforward, just the way I like them. It’s a good salad, so if you give this one a try, let me know your thoughts in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!