Roasted Beet and Arugula Salad with Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette

Name: Roasted Beet and Arugula Salad with Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 90 min
Total time: 105 min
Ingredients: 16 ounces baby arugula; 3 large beets (peeled and roasted); ¼ cup olive oil; ¼ cup balsamic vinegar; 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup; 2 teaspoons stone ground mustard; ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon; Bourbon Candied Pecans and Cranberries; Fresh goat chevre; Fresh cracked pepper

Check out these beet wedgies!

Happy Monday! Free wedgies all around!

Wow, you took that like a champ. Like, no resistance WHATsoEVA. Who could blame you? Free things are always enticing. Especially on a Monday, when you’re 99.76% certain you’re ready to quit your job and join a utopian commune where everyone shares goat milk, swiss chard, cheesecloth, (kombucha?) and homemade soap. True fact: If there’s one thing that you should get for free every Monday, it’s wedgies.

Beet wedgies, guys, getchya head out the gutter.

This isn’t exactly the first, second, third, or even forth beet salad I’ve shared with you…Beet salads are kind of a revolving thing ’round these parts. But you guys, this salad is MEAT-TAY.

Yup: a meaty beet salad…but sans the meat. Like, there’s no meat in this beet salad, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not meaty, because it’s totally meaty, just lookit the thang, there’s MEAT written all over the sonofagun with those big beety wedges. It’s a real meaty beet-y beetropolis of wedgie delight with a side of meaty beet.

I recently went to a restaurant in Nevada City (about a 1.5-hour drive from where I live) called New Moon, which had a beet salad on the menu that is off the chisel. < – get it? That’s like off the chain hybridized with off the hizzle. Kind of like if Guy Fieri and LL Cool J got together and made omelettes…they’d be off the chisel. Moving right along.

The beets were served warm, fresh out of the oven with peppery arugula, goat chevre, red onion, candied walnuts, and balsamic vinaigrette. The beets were so juicy, sweet, and meaty that they made the salad super filling and packed with flavor. The second I took a bite of the salad, I knew I would be re-creating it at home. So I did, with some minor ingredient changes.

I used some of the maple bourbon roasted pecans and cranberries from the Stuffed Sweet Potatoes I showed you recently instead of walnuts. The spiced toasty candied nuts and cranberries add all sorts of warmth and oomph to the salad, making this plate a legit entre salad. Like this thing fills.you.up!

And the beets…

Haveyounoticed how amazing beets have been lately? First off, they’ve been uuuuuuuge! Secondly, they’ve been juicy and sweet. And finally (here’s the kicker), they have been tasting far less earthy than usual. For those who aren’t in love with beets, this is the perfect time of year to revisit them, since they are in season. If you’re new to beets, Cooking Light has a great Guide to Beets article, which tells everything you could want to know about beet picking, storage, and prep.

Get your beet wedge on!