Citrus Beet & Greens Salad - good!!

The experiment worked! Our good friends and their daughters were our test pilots (thank you guys for that) and got to share in another garden meal!

I started with the beets I pulled up today. After chopping off (and saving) the greens, this was my collection, seen in the above photo in a dutch oven.

Then I coated them in a little canola oil and stuck them to roast, covered, in the oven at 410 degrees for about an hour (?) until they were done.

I trimmed and washed the beet greens, and blanched them in boiling water for about a minute and a half.

After the beets were done roasting and had cooled a bit, I peeled off the tougher parts of the skin by hand and cut them up into pieces. In this picture, you can see the cool banding in some of the beets. They're heirloom strains, courtesy of my mother. And as we found out, they're incredibly sweet and flavorful (especially if you roast them).

As for the dressing, I winged it and based it very loosely on an epicurious.com recipe. I took a bunch of fresh garlic and wanted to take the edge off (knowing young children would eat this meal), but I didn't have the time/patience to roast it. So I tried something random and stuck it in the microwave for 1 minute. Worked like a charm.

Then I blended that up in a mini food processor with inexact amounts of:

garden herbs (basil, cilantro, chives)

basalmic vinegar (maybe 1/4 cup)

olive oil (maybe 1/4 cup)

1/2 of orange juice (maybe more)

zest and juice of 1 lemon

generous tablespoon honey

salt to taste

I added that to a bowl of thinly sliced onions and let that sit for a while to mellow. When the greens were blanched and drained, I added them to the onions and dressing as well. Then I cut the peels off 3 oranges and sliced them across into pieces - threw them in as well. I didn't add the beets, though, because I wanted to sprinkle them on top of the salad, but I don't think that's important.

To serve, dish the greens onto a plate, top with the beets and serve with a chunk of nice, room temperature goat cheese. Serve with crusty bread and lots of wine!