There isn’t a single thing in this salad that I didn’t just l-o-v-e. Freshly roasted beets, mildly salted Feta cheese, quinoa, arugula (or fresh greens), roasted hazelnuts and a just a little bit sweet pear vinegar dressing. Oh yum!
If you want to try a different kind of salad – this one with quinoa (a high protein grain) and fresh roasted beets – is worth making. Oh gosh, it was really nice.
Toasted Hazelnuts:
Sometimes you can buy them already skinned and toasted. If not, toast in a 350° oven for 10-15 minutes, stirring once or twice until golden brown. Remove, cool a minute or two then wrap them in a tea towel, wind it up firmly and rub on a countertop or in your hands (just make sure the edge doesn’t come loose) and most of the skins will come off.
The Bulgarian Feta is less salty than some, so you can eat slightly bigger chunks of it in a salad. Seek it out, if you have sources for something other than the usual high sodium Feta. You do need to toast the hazelnuts (they’re so much better if you toast them), and if they still have the skins on them, rub vigorously with a terrycloth towel after you toast them and most of the skins will come off. I can never get all the skin off, but enough so the nuts don’t have an overall bitter taste.
In all the years of cooking beets, I’ve never done them this way, the way Tarla Fallgatter made them at the cooking class. She bought beets all of about the same size (making for more even baking) and cut off all but about 2” of the stems on each one – leaving the tail on them too – if you cut the tail, the beet will bleed a lot more of its juices – same with cutting off the tops. Anyway, each beet is wrapped separately in foil, sealed up fairly well and placed in a RIMMED baking sheet or casserole dish. Something that’s just a little bit bigger than the beets are. It may be hard to see – but those are about 5 separate foil packets, standing upright. Tarla strongly believes that beets roasted this way have a much more intense flavor – sweeter – and with a better texture. She’s a graduate of the Cordon Bleu School in Paris, so she ought to know!
Once baked, you need to open them up so they’ll cool a bit, then remove the skin, root end and stems. Allow to cool a bit more if they’re still hot. Wear a pair of plastic gloves if you’d prefer not to get your hands and fingernails purple for the rest of the day.
While the beets roast, work on the quinoa. This was a new way of preparing quinoa too – Tarla toasted the dry quinoa in a skillet for 2-3 minutes until the tiny grains were lightly toasted. They actually began to pop a little in the pan (like spices do); then you add the chicken stock and simmer covered for 15 minutes or so, or until they’re just tender.
The dressing is very simple – pear vinegar and sherry vinegar, honey mustard, olive oil and seasonings. The greens or arugula are tossed with some of the dressing, the beets (quartered) are tossed with a bit of the dressing (in a separate bowl), the cheese is cut up in cubes and when you add the quinoa, the quinoa sticks to the cheese – I thought it made a really beautiful looking salad. It’s easier to add the beets on top – that way each person will get an equal amount of beets.
What’s GOOD: every single thing about it – tasty, pretty, healthy. Worth making.
What’s NOT: just that it does take a bit of time to make everything (about an hour for the beets, 15 minutes or so for the quinoa, 10-15 for the hazelnuts. But I think you’ll hear raves.
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Roasted Beet and Quinoa Salad
Recipe By: From Tarla Fallgatter, cooking instructor, 2013
Serving Size: 6
4 medium beets — tops cut, but 2″ of stems remaining
1/2 cup red quinoa
1 cup chicken stock
3 cups salad greens — or arugula
1/2 cup hazelnuts — roasted, skin rubbed off, coarsely chopped
4 ounces Feta cheese — Bulgarian preferred, or other lower-salt type
VINAIGRETTE:
3 tablespoons pear vinegar
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
2 teaspoons honey mustard
6 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Wrap each beet individually in foil, stems up. Place on a rimmed cookie sheet or baking dish and bake until tender, about 50 minutes. Test with sharp point of a knife to make sure beets are tender. Unwrap beets and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes, then rub the skin off the beets. Cut into wedges.
2. Saute quinoa for 2-3 minutes in a dry skillet, until they’re lightly toasted. They will begin to pop and jump around in the pan. Add chicken stock and bring mixture to a simmer. Cover and cook over very low heat for 15 minutes, or until quinoa is tender. Drain off any excess liquid.
3. In a small bowl or jar combine the dressing ingredients and shake to combine.
4. Toss the greens with some of the vinaigrette until coated. Add the quinoa and toss again. Add hazelnuts and cubed Feta, tossing very lightly. The quinoa will stick to the Feta.
5. Drizzle more of the dressing on the wedged beets. Spoon salad mixture onto individual plates and add beets on top.
Per Serving: 331 Calories; 26g Fat (68.4% calories from fat); 8g Protein; 19g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 17mg Cholesterol; 640mg Sodium.
Toffeeapple
said on May 9th, 2013:
I recently ate a quiche of beetroot and Feta, it was delicious. I have never used Quinoa, I get the idea that I would not like the texture of the seeds. Is it true that you have to wash it five times before you can cook it?
Yes, you do have to rinse it well. Many times. Apparently there is some kind of coating on quinoa that’s bitter. If you don’t rinse it, it will retain that bitter flavor. I don’t mind the texture – they’re almost like pasta, in a tiny little round form, but they can have just a little bit of crunch to them. But I like that part. You also must have a strainer that has a small enough mesh that the tiny little seeds don’t just wash away. This method, requires you to toast the quinoa in a pan first, so you’d either have to buy pre-washed quinoa or you’d need to rinse, rinse, then let it dry on a towel before doing the toasting part. . . carolyn t