Beet and chevre salad

ur garden is rolling out the produce quite nicely, and I'm a wee bit blissed out with the harvesting of romaine, kale, potatoes and beets. Green beans need to be gathered soon, as do onions (Walla Walla Sweets!), and the zucchini and summer squash are starting to proliferate... amazing what a little sunshine will do.

So those beets... how about those beets? I have had "issues" with beets over the years... not many issues--the main one is that I think they taste like dirt if they aren't of the pickled variety, and I really can't stand the pickled ones! Generally, I've just avoided them. For some reason, though, over the past few years, I've felt like it's something I need to "work on." Because there aren't enough vegetables in my cupboard? Not sure. A nutritional psychologist could probably posit a theory or two...

Sweet Aunty M tried to convert me a few years back with some beets roasted in vanilla, and they were... okay... nothing I felt the need to do again. And borscht is borscht--as a soup it seems quite separate from beets themselves; I know, the contradiction makes no sense. I understand your confusion. I'm a little confused myself.

And yet, here we are: there are beets in the garden. Someone bought seeds (me) (notice that they are yellow and striped beets, how fun!) and planted them (me again) and even thinned them out (yep), and picked them, brought them inside, washed, peeled and roasted them (yes, still me). Sounds like someone who actually likes beets, doesn't it?

Well, true confession time, I've been moving sideways toward liking beets for a bit now. A couple of local restaurants have featured beets as salads and appetizers and the way that beets have found their way into my heart will come as no surprise: chevre. Yep, it's another vehicle for cheese! I knew you'd understand.

So, when I thought of how I'd want to eat my beets, I looked around for a beet and chevre salad, and found a few options. I settled on this one to model after, and the results were truly yummy.

Beet and chevre salad
2 cups washed mixed greens (I had romaine from the yard, but think in the future arugula would be my green of choice for this salad)
1 cup roasted beets, sliced or cubed
1/3 cup chevre, crumbled
1/3 cup roasted hazelnuts, chopped roughly

Orange vinaigrette
1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Combine orange juice and oil in a jar with lid, add salt and pepper and shake until emulsified.

Put greens in a medium bowl and drizzle with enough orange dressing to coat and toss well. Layer the greens, then beets, then chevre, then hazelnuts on a dinner-size plate and drizzle a bit more dressing if you'd like.

Beet heaven! Two words I never thought I'd put in the same sentence.

How's this for a clever idea for roasting the beets and not having any colors run into each other? Those dark beets can really stain up whatever they touch! It worked so cleverly I had to post this picture to Pinterest (of course!).