Red Beets and Orange Salad

Another Saturday and another trip to the farmers market.  This week I was lucky enough to get out there in time to catch the cooking demo.

This week Chef Mark Arriola from SoGo demoed a Red Beet and Orange Salad.
(Note: I took some liberty in re-wording some of the steps or order)

From the recipe card:

“Every now and again, I go through these phases where I just fall in love with an ingredient and it seems to just show up all over my menus. Lately it has been beets, red beets to be exact.  Beets have the highest sugar content of all vegetables, but remain low in calories; one cup of beets has only 74 calories.  Flavor is sweet with a slightly earthy flavor, and when cooked has a great vfelvety texture.   Although beets are available all year long, we are just coming into the best time of the year for them.  These young beets are very tender, and to me always seem a bit sweeter.  The leaves are also edible and have a flavor similar to Swiss Chard which is a slightly better green.  I like to saute the greens with a bit of olive oil, a pinch of garlic, splace of white wine, salt and pepper.  Beets are a good source for potassium, vitamin C and a dietary fiber.  Studies have shown that beets contain nutrients that can be helpful in protection of heat disease and certain cancers, especially colon cancer.”

Ingredients

• 6 Red Beets, small to medium size
• 1/2 Red Onion, julienned
  You can view a video on how to julienne an onion at FreeCulinarySchool.com
• 1 Navel Orange, segmented
  This is a good video on how to segment an orange on Metacafe.
• 2 tbl Italian Parsley, chopped
• 2 tbl Red Wine Vinegar
• 6 tbl Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Sea Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper (as needed)

1. Preheat the oven to 400º.
2. Wash the beets and pat dry.
3. Wrap in a double layer of oil and roast for approximately 45 minutes to an hour.  The beets should be soft when squeezed.
4. Unwrap and let cool until it can be handled safetly by hand.
5. While still warm, peel the beets by rubbing the skin off.
6. Dice ( or slice or cut in to wedges ) the beets
7. Combine the beets with all of the ingredients except for the orange segments in a stainless steel bowl.
8. Place in a serving dish with orange segments and server chilled.
9. Optional:  Top with Bleu Cheese, Goat Cheese, Walnuts or Pecans.

At the cooking demo, the walnuts used were candied with a bit of spice.  While Chef Mark did not have a recipe, he did give a quick run down of how the make the candied walnuts.

These measurements are not exact and you will have to play with the proportions to get it just right.

In short the recipe is as follows

Ingredients

• Equal parts sugar and water
• Walnuts
• Cayenne powder
• Chili powder

1. In a sauce pot, dissolve the sugar completely in to the water.
2. Sprinkle in the cayenne and chili powder
3. Add in the walnuts and stir consistently for ~10-15 minutes.
4. Strain walnuts
5. Bake walnuts for 10-15 minutes in oven. (I didn’t catch at what temperature, but I am going to start with 350º)

I should have taken pictures of the final product at the farmers market and in the future I will try to remember that.  Once I get through assembling the salad, I will put up some pictures.

I will also update the proportions used in the candied walnuts.

-Alex