Roasted Beet Salad with Oranges and Wild Rice
Call this a wonderful beet salad that doubles as a side dish or a hearty wild rice side dish that doubles as a salad and you'd be right either way. The ingredients in this recipe are a celebration of playful balance - the earthy sweetness of roasted beets balances with the bright tang of fresh oranges, nutty wild rice with grassy parsley, honey and toasted walnuts, and everything against peppery leaves of arugula and sorrel's green apple sourness. Serve as a light meal or along side roasted game or grass fed beef. Prep time: 40 mins, Cook time 1 hr Serves 8 (approximately 1 cup)
Ingredients
- 1 lb beets leaves removed
- 1 cup wild rice
- 2 large navel oranges segments and juice separated*
- ¼ cup thinly sliced red onion
- ½ cup parsley chopped
- 6-8 cups arugula and sorrel may substitute a mixture of salad greens including: kale, radicchio
- ⅓ cup 40 grams walnuts, toasted & diced
Dressing:
- ¼ cup juice from the oranges
- ¼ cup white wine vinegar
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 5 teaspoon dijion mustard
- 2 teaspoon honey
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt add more to taste
- 1 dash black pepper add more to taste
Instructions
- Roast the beets:Preheat the oven to 350F. Place the clean, trimmed, beets into a baking pan tightly covered with foil. Cook the beets for 1 hour, until tender, then allow them to cool to room temperature. When the beets have cooled the skin will slide off easily. Peel the beets then slice each beet in half then into thin wedges.
FYI: Beet juice will temporarily stain your fingers and may permanently stain fabric. Wear gloves if desired and certainly wear an apron to protect your clothing. - Cook the wild rice:While the beets are cooking, prepare the wild rice. Bring 4 cups of water and a big pinch of salt to a boil, add the rice, reduce the temperature to low then simmer for 45-1 hour until the rice has swollen and split to become tender but not mushy. When the rice is cooked, drain any excess liquid and allow the rice to cool.
- Make the dressing:Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing. Place the sliced beets, orange segments, and onion into a glass bowl or large zip top bag and cover with the dressing. Cover and refrigerate for several hours up to 2 days.
- To serve:Spread the wild rice over a large platter, cover with a nest of greens including the parsley, then spoon the beet mixture into the center of the nest. Finish with the toasted nuts, some parsley and a few grains of coarse sea salt. Alternately, toss everything in a large salad bowl.
Notes
*Segmenting an orange is the process of removing the outer peel, white pith, and thin membrane from the sections of fruit. You should be able to collect the juice from the remaining orange parts after removing the segments to equal the ¼ cup needed for the dressing. If there is less than ¼ cup of juice use additional vinegar to make up the difference. If you are unsure about segmenting an orange check out this step-by-step example.
Nutrition
Serving: 1gCalories: 176kcalCarbohydrates: 19gProtein: 3.6gFat: 10.4gSaturated Fat: 1.3gSodium: 199mgFiber: 4gSugar: 10g
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