Fruity Roasted Beet Salad

I know some of you are not a fan of beet but I just love it. I can have it in my juice or salad anytime. I will have it fresh in my juice and for the salad I will usually roast it up. Roasted beets are delightful, sweet but very earthy and aromatic. I planted some beets this year but it didn’t grow very well. I think the soil is too hard so next season I need to buy some extra soil to top it up. Anyway, I took them all out last week as I won’t have the time to water them as often as we will be travelling again soon. I just roast them with some olive oil, salt and pepper and eat it with some salad. This beet salad is full of bright colors, refreshing and sweet earthy flavors.

Ingredients:

4 medium size beets (remove leaves and with stem ends intact)
1 large orange – remove peel and cut into segments
2 cups of cut lettuce – any kind
10 strawberries – cut into halve
2 hard boiled eggs - quartered

Dressing:

4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp fresh orange juice
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375°. Scrub beets, pat dry. Put on a large piece of aluminum foil. Drizzle about 1 tbsp of olive oil, and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Wrap it up in foil and bake it in the oven until tender when pierced with a knife, about 45 min (depend on the size of beets)
2. Let it cool down for 15 min or cool enough to handle, rub beets with paper towels to remove skin; discard skin. Cut the beets into half or quarters.
3. Mix all the dressing ingredients and mix the beets with half of the dressing. Set it aside for 15 minutes.
4. Arrange the lettuce, orange, strawberries, eggs in a platter. Drizzle the balance of the dressing on top and top it with the beets and serve.