About this Recipe

This is a very colorful and tasty salad. It is loaded with nutrition and has lots of fiber. You can make a beet salad with raw beets as well and it is very popular. A nice young beet is pretty sweet both raw and roasted. We are great lovers of beets in Grandmother's Kitchen, especially when they are roasted. Did you realize beets can be used both for savory and sweet recipes. You can sneak them into baked goods and make soup with them, pickle them, include them on sandwiches, use them in dips, use them in fritters, on pizza...well the ideas go on and on. Beets may have at one time taken a back seat in the world of vegetables, but these days they are an exciting addition to lots of recipes.

Grandmother's Kitchen Tips for Roasted Cold Beet and Carrot Salad:

1. Roasted beets will last several days refrigerated so you can roast your beets and use them over the course of several days in your recipes.

2. We suggest using parchment paper instead of aluminum foil to wrap the beets.

3. The amount of time it will take a beet to bake will vary depending on the size of the beets and oven temperature. They are done when you can easily pierce a knife through them.

4. If you don't have a Mandoline Slicer cutter you can either cut the beets by hand or you can use a medium-large size grater.

5. Choose young kale so the leaves will be more tender. Because you are eating it raw, cut out the tough spine, also cut into nice small bite sized pieces.

6. Only put the dressing on the amount of salad you will be eating. This salad will keep without dressing for up to 3 days refrigerated so you don't want to put dressing and have it go soggy.

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Ingredients

(Print)

You can roast as many beets as you want.

2 beets (bottoms only, not the green tops)

1 Tablespoon grapeseed oil

salt and pepper - a spinkling

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Have ready a baking dish.

2. Wash the beets in water to remove any dirt. Pat dry.

3. Cut a piece of parchment paper large enough to make a wrapper that won't open and wrap place the beets onto the parchment.

4. Drizzle the oil onto the beets and lightly salt. Encase the beets in the parchment paper.

5. Bake for 40-50 minutes. Cooking time will vary depending on the size of the beets. Very large beets can take even longer. You know the beets are done if you can easily spear a knife through them.

6. Remove from the oven, open the parchment paper and let the beets cool to a temperature you can easily handle them. Slip the skins off and cut off the stem end. Put into a dish and drizzle the oil from the baking wrapper onto the beets.

7. Eat as they are or you can use them in other recipes such as a beet salad that is served with kale and a feta cheese. We use a tofu based vegan feta cheese.

Roasted Cold Beet and Carrot Salad

Ingredients:

2 beets, roasted-cold and julienned

2 carrots, peeled and shredded

8 kale leaves, washed and cut to small pieces

1/2 cup feta cheese, - we used vegan feta cheese

1 cup raw pecan nuts - chopped

salad dressing of choice

Directions:

1. Peel and grate the carrots.

2. Peel the roasted, cooled beets and julienne.

3. Cut the hard spine out of the kale and cut the kale into small bite sized pieces.

4. Put kale into serving dish, add carrots and mix together, next add the beets and mix together

5. Sprinkle feta and chopped pecans on top.

6. Serve and use a salad dressing of your choice.

Tips about Parchment Paper

What is parchment paper?

It is a cellulose based paper that is treated to make it a non-stick product. It is coated with silicone which means it can be heated to high temperatures without smoking.

There are bleached and unbleached parchment papers. The bleached one contains dioxin which is toxic so we suggest you use the unbleached parchment paper for your cooking and baking needs.

When using parchment paper for baking cookies it can be reused several times before you toss it. If it has crumbs or residue on it, just give it a little wipe with a clean washcloth, let dry and put it back into the drawer for next time. You can keep re-using until it gets brown and crumbly.

Parchment paper is not recyclable because of the silicone and the fact it is usually contaminated with cooking oils and residue from food so it does need to be treated as regular garbage. It does however break down faster than wax paper or aluminum foil in the landfill.

What is waxed paper?

Wax paper is paper that has been impregnated with paraffin or soybean wax. If you heat waxed paper it is smokey so has not been used for baking and cooking. Wax paper is fine to use as a food wrap or for lining counter tops if you want a surface to roll out pie crusts or dough. You can put it between baking or foods you are freezing to keep them from sticking together. Wax paper is good for cold applications, where parchment is good for cold and hot applications.

What about aluminum foil?

People have been using aluminum foil for decades and before parchment paper was so available it was very popular.

Aluminum foil doesn't have non-stick properties, so often things you cook or bake will stick to the aluminum foil and you may find a chunk of it on the bottom of your roasted veggies, meat or baked good.

Lining the bottom of the oven is popular with aluminum foil, but it is not a good idea as it can prevent good air circulation in the oven and alter the way food cooks. There are aluminum trays to put on the bottom rack that are better to use to catch possible drips.