Roasted Beet and Blood Orange Salad

Salads sound good, especially good when you want to close the blinds and block out the tail end of winter. Think warm, sunny days on the deck…at the lake…having a lazy Sunday….on and on! This will serve 6 guests.

• 6 small beets (3 yelllow and 3 red would be awesome)
• 2 large blood oranges
• Baby mixed spring greens

Dressing 

• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 medium, minced shalot
• 2 pinches of salt
• 2 pinches of pepper
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• few thyme leaves

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Wrap the beets individually in tin foil and bake about 1- 1  1/2 hours until fork tender. Remove beets from oven, unwrap and cool a few minutes before handling. Wearing gloves, peel and slice the beets into eighths. Set aside.

Peel the oranges and remove as much of the pith (white) as you can. Now with a grapefruit knife, remove each segment from their skin.
Place the segments in a bowl. If there is anything left in the skins, squeeze whatever juice you can and sprinkle over the segments in the bowl.

Make the dressing and whisk it all together until well blended.

Now on salad plates, place some of the greens  in the centre of each plate. Place some of the beets pieces on each plate (if using yellow and red beets, mix them up), sprinkle the orange segments around the plate and drizzle the dressing over it all.

Warm rolls, glass of crisp, chilled wine…voila!  Pure enjoyment in a meal.