Warm Beet Salad with Fig Vinaigrette
🎉🎊 It’s that time of year when New Year’s Resolutions are plastered everywhere. You can’t turn a corner without hearing about resolutions to eat healthy and get fit. It’s a goal that’s on all of our minds. So let’s stay strong together and start thinking creatively about fun and interesting ways to switch up the salad game. Let’s leave the lettuce aside for a change and try adding some heartier roasted veggies to the mix.
Last February I was at a wedding and enjoyed a salad with a butter lettuce base, topped with beets, figs and a vegan blue cheese dressing. Almost a year later and I still haven’t been able to get that salad off my mind… 😜drooling right now… but vegan blue cheese dressing? Not my area of expertise… So instead of trying to replicate it, I decided to use the inspiration to reinvent those same flavors into a heartier warm dinner salad. This salad can be served as an appetizer for two or an entrée for one—and it’s definitely hearty enough to satisfy a full meal.
| Servings | Prep Time | Cook Time | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 5 mins. | 20 mins. | 25 mins. |
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon crushed black pepper
- 1 bundle of asparagus
- 1 large leek
- 3 large beets
- ¼ balsamic vinegar
- ¾ cup water
- 5 dried figs
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/8 of a cup of crushed pistachios
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease two baking sheets with olive oil.
- Slice beets into approximately ¼ inch thick slices and arrange on 1 baking sheet.
- Trim the ends off of the asparagus and arrange on the other baking sheet, leaving room for the leeks. Thinly slice the leeks diagonally, starting from the root, until the green is reached. Arrange leek slices on the baking sheet.
- Lightly season the beets, asparagus and leeks with olive salt and pepper.
- Roast for approximately 20 minutes, until beets are tender and asparagus and leeks are slightly crispy.
- While the vegetables are roasting, prepare the vinaigrette by combining balsamic vinegar, water and figs in a small saucepan. Simmer for twenty minutes.
- Transfer the figs and the liquid from the saucepan to a blender. Add Dijon mustard and lemon juice and blend until pureed.
- To plate, you can spoon 1 ½ tablespoons of the vinaigrette onto a plate, spreading with the backside of the spoon. Top with beets, asparagus and leeks, then garnish with crushed pistachios.
Toddler Tip:
Let your toddler help out by scooping the pistachios into a plastic bag and crush them by rolling back and forth over the sealed bag with a rolling pin. Let them sprinkle the crushed pistachios onto the finished salad.
