I never used to be a salad person. I would eat it and enjoy it, but I never really sought it out or really appreciated it. It wasn’t until I couldn’t eat salad that I started to crave it and get more creative with salad. Crohn’s has kept me away from raw vegetables on and off at different spurts in my life. So here I am now, Crohn’s free, and taking full advantage of this lull in my life. Summer has come on with full force and with that, we have some beautiful veggies showing up in the markets. Baby spinach is one of my favorite greens. You may have noticed that it shows up in some of my favorite dishes.
Since it’s summer time, I like to eat more fresh dishes that don’t require heating up the house.
I think it was my sister that introduced me to this Spinach and Beet Salad with Chèvre and Walnuts. I ate it on one of my visits back home to Minneapolis. Since then, I order this salad on whatever menu I see it on. I decided to make it myself. I had recently received some beautiful beets in the CSA and I had everything else in the fridge.
The spinach I used in this salad was prewashed and ready to go. I roasted some beets and I toasted some walnuts in the oven.
I served the salad with a red wine, basil and shallot vinaigrette that I quickly whipped up in my Cuisinart Mini-Prep processor.
- 1 small bunch of beets (about 4-5 small beets)
- 1 bag of pre-washed baby spinach
- 1 cup walnuts
- 1 small red onion, sliced thinly
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- sea salt
- fresh ground pepper
- goat cheese (Chèvre)
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Trim off the ends of the beets and place in foil. Sprinkle olive oil over the beets and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wrap in the foil.
- Roast the beets in the oven for about 40 minutes.
- Remove from oven and cool.
- While the beets cool, place the walnuts on some foil and toast in the oven for about 5 minutes.
- Remove from oven and cool.
- When cooled down, slice the beets thinly.
- Layer the salad - first the spinach, then the beets, then the onions and walnuts, then the goat cheese.
- Sprinkle on a dressing of your choice. I would recommend a red wine vinaigrette.
- 1 shallot
- 2 cloves garlic
- 15 basil leaves
- 5 tbsp. red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp. honey
- ½ cup olive oil
- 2 tsp. sea salt
- 2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
- Place everything except for the olive oil in to the food processor.
- Start blending the mixture.
- Slowly pour in the olive oil and let the mixture emulsify.
- Transfer dressing to a container.
- Enjoy on your favorite salad.
