Roasted Beet and Turnip Salad

It's now getting on to good weather and I'm out walking and hiking as much as I can these days. That's not leaving me a lot of energy for cooking, creating new dishes, or even time to write about them. Here's a departure from all my recent wildflower posts.

After a visit to an early farmers market and coming away with early season ingredients including arugula, beets, and pretty little white Hakurei turnips, I decided to make a salad. 

Roasted Beet and Turnip Salad
with Arugula, Goat Cheese, Croutons, and Spiced Hazelnuts

The very best way I know to treat beets for salads (if you're going to cook them at all) is to roast them. I wrap them in a single layer in an aluminum foil packet and place them in a moderate oven until I can pierce them easily. For these smallish beets at 350F, that was about 45 minutes in the oven. The smaller turnips I treated the same way, but only roasted them for about 20 minutes. I just wanted to soften them and not cook them quite all the way through.

For the salad, I peeled and chopped the beets, quartered the tiny turnips, made some croutons quickly in a skillet on the range, and then toasted whole hazelnuts in olive oil in that same pan before tossing them with a little of my pork spice rub. Everything went into a salad bowl with a bunch of arugula and some crumbled goat cheese. After drizzling the salad with a little extra virgin olive oil, a bit of really good balsamic vinegar, and a sprinkle of salt, I tossed the whole thing and Ann and I set about feasting.

I was really pleased with the addition of the beets to this salad. Their pepperiness complemented the arugula and contrasted pleasantly with the beets.