Roasted beets are a delicious addition to salads, and it’s doubly good if their greens are included as well. This roasted beet and fennel salad will brighten your cool-weather meals.
What to serve with roasted beet and fennel salad: This earthy salad goes with just about any kind of meal, including casseroles, grain dishes, pastas and more.
Use red or golden beets, or a combination: Unless you’re buying them in a bunch, you can use either red or golden beets, but a combination of the two is a real winner!
Since you have the oven going at 425º F … consider making a pan of roasted vegetables at the same time. Include broccoli, cauliflower, baby carrots, winter squashes.
About beet greens
Not surprisingly, beet greens are the leafy greens attached to the beet root. Chances are, if you come across them, you’ll be getting the beets as well as the greens.
Unless they grow prolifically in your home garden, a typical bunch of beets that you purchase will consist of 3 to 5 beets, and a modest amount of greens.
They’re quite comparable to chard in terms of flavor and texture; like some varieties of chard, beet greens have a slightly salty undertone. Beet greens from different color beets taste fairly similar to one another.
There’s no reason not to use beet greens raw, but they’re less palatable that way. They’re better lightly steamed or wilted, and since big bunches are rare, what you’ll get with a typical bunch of beets wilts down to quite a modest amount.
If you ever find yourself with an abundance of beet greens, use them in place of or in addition to chard or spinach in recipes featuring those greens in lightly cooked form.
As with chard, the choice of whether to use the thinly sliced stems (those from red beets “bleed” quite a bit) or not is up to the individual cook. Here’s lots more about beet greens, sometimes known as beet tops.
Recipe is from Wild About Greens by Nava Atlas. Photos by Hannah Kaminsky, BittersweetBlog.com.
Explore more …
- Watercress and Radicchio Salad with Beets & Avocado
- Roasted Rutabaga with Beets, Carrots, & Parsnips
- Festive Beet and Carrot Salad
- Sweet and Citrusy Beets with Beet Greens
Roasted Beet and Fennel Salad (with Beet Greens and Oranges)
This roasted beet and fennel salad will brighten your cool-weather meals.
Ingredients
- 3 large or 4 to 5 medium beets, with a good quantity of greens (use red or golden beets, or a combination)
- 1 medium fennel bulb, stemmed, trimmed of stalks and thinly sliced
- 1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
- 2 to 3 cloves garlic, sliced
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil or fragrant nut oil
- 3 small seedless oranges, peeled and sectioned
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh dill, or more, to taste
- Juice of 1 lemon, or more, to taste
- 2 teaspoons agave or maple syrup, or more, to taste
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425º F.
- Cut the greens away from the beets. Chop coarsely, rinse well, and set aside.
- To minimize the mess of cutting raw beets, peel over the trash or compost container, and slice them on a cutting board covered with wax paper.
- Place the sliced raw beets in a foil-lined baking dish and combine with the sliced fennel, onion, and garlic. Drizzle with enough oil to coat, reserving the rest.
- Bake for 30 minute, or until tender to your liking. Stir once or twice during that time.
- Meanwhile, place the beet greens in a medium skillet; steam until bright green and just tender. Place in a colander and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Chop fairly small.
- Combine the roasted vegetables in a mixing bowl with the remaining oil as well as all the remaining ingredients and toss together. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Enjoy lots more plant-forward salads & sides.
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