• Recipes
• Second course
• Roast
• Avocado and roasted beets with black olives, ricotta salata and marcona almonds

Roasting

This salad is an amalgam of sorts -- the kind of recipe that sort of falls into place when remembering your favorite elements of numerous recipes and salads. I adore the combination of roasted beets and avocado so knew I wanted to start there. I began by roasting beets according to Amanda’s instructions to concentrate their flavor (http://www.food52.com/recipes/4149_the_best_way_to_cook_beets). I then remembered two great details from a Suzanne Goin recipe for a roasted beet salad: mixing in thinly sliced shallots with freshly roasted beets, and nestling the beets with thin slabs of ricotta salata (a most welcome departure from the ubiquitous roasted beet - goat cheese duo). My salad was starting to come together but needed a little punch to round out the flavors. I decided to add some black olives -- an ingredient I knew would pair well based on a great, simple avocado salad in the cookbook, Recipes from an Italian Summer. For the finishing touches, I drizzled in a lime-chili vinaigrette for brightness, and then scattered fresh mint, basil and marcona almonds on top, because, well, you can never go wrong with marcona almonds. After you’ve roasted your beets (a step that can be done in advance), the salad comes together easily and is adaptable. While lovely as a composed salad, the same recipe can easily be transformed into a more rustic main dish by mixing these same ingredients with farro, quinoa or another grain.

Share: