Spinach Salad With Roasted Beets, Orange, and Goat Cheese

This is a favorite winter salad of mine and my husband's.  Before this salad, he would never even look at a beet.  Over the past 20 years that we've been together, he has learned to trust my cooking, and at least now tastes things, even if he has his doubts about them!

This is one of those recipes that I am not really sure of the origin.  I have seen similar combinations of ingredients in many different places, and at one point just set out to create my own, and this is the result.  I use blood oranges in this salad because I love their color, and it's just a little bit different, but you can use regular navel oranges if you want.  Even if it's not citrus season, you could use canned mandarin oranges in this.  I would caution against using canned beets though...there just is no substitute for roasted fresh beets!  I roasted mine a couple of days ahead of time, and that cuts down on the prep time when you are serving the salad.  If you don't roast them ahead of time, be sure to give them time to cool before making the salad.  If they are warm, they will wilt the spinach, and I like the spinach in this salad to be nice and crisp.

Spinach Salad With Roasted Beets, Orange, and Goat Cheese (Serves 2)

Ingredients:

Beets:
Fresh beets, one per person, small to medium size
Olive oil

Salad:
4 cups fresh spinach leaves, washed well and dried well, kept chilled
1 orange (blood orange or navel), or substitute canned mandarin oranges
1/2 cup walnut halves
1/4 goat cheese, crumbled
thinly sliced onion- a few slices per salad, to taste (I usually prefer to use red onions in this, but this time all I had was a sweet yellow onion)

Dressing:
Juice from orange (see note below), about 2 tbsp
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp finely minced shallot
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.  Roast beets.  This can be done ahead of time.  Refrigerate beets until you prepare the salad.  Remove the stem and root ends of the beets and cut lengthwise into quarters or sixths, depending on beet size.  You want bite-sized pieces.  Do not peel beets.  Place in a shallow oven-proof dish and drizzle with a couple tbsp. of olive oil and toss well.  Roast in a 375 degree oven for 15 minutes, stir, then roast another 10-15 minutes until tender.  When beets are cool enough to handle, peel the skin off  or rub off with a paper towel.  Chill well.

2.  Place spinach into salad bowls.

3.  Segment orange.  Cut a slice off of the top and bottom of the orange,through the pith (white part).  Place on a cutting board upright on one cut end.  Cut  a slice of the peel and pith off from top to bottom, removing as little fruit as possible.

4.  Rotate and cut the peel off all the way around the orange until it is completely free of the peel.

5.  With your knife, slice along the sides of the membrane separating the segments of the orange, so as to remove a wedge of the orange from between the membranes.

6.  Continue to remove all orange wedges.

7.  Squeeze the juice from the remaining orange membranes into a bowl and reserve.  Discard membranes.  (Now you know why they call them blood oranges!)

8.  Heat a skillet over medium heat and add walnuts.  Toast 3-5 minutes until fragrant.  Remove from heat and set aside.

9.  Top spinach in bowl with beet wedges and orange slices.  Add walnuts.

10.  Top with onion slices and goat cheese.

11.  Make dressing.  Whisk together reserved orange juice, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, shallots, salt and pepper.  Drizzle over salads.

This is not really an everyday salad, but I like to make it once in awhile to make dinner kind of special.  My hubby and I enjoyed this along side some grilled chicken breasts and brown rice, and it made for a delicious, healthy and well-balanced Saturday dinner.

I'm not sure yet what I will share with you next time.  I have a few ideas I'm working on, one of which is a recipe makeover of a somewhat unhealthy convenience food that my daughter loves, but which I hesitate to serve because of the high fat content.  I am researching alternatives and think I might be onto something there, but might not get to it this week.  If not, I'll come up with something else tasty to show you!