Friday, February 6, 2009

Beet and Pear Salad with Feta

A recent NY Times blog post discussed 11 foods we should all be eating more of. One of these items was raw beets.

I have added small amounts of beets while juicing, but have never really enjoyed them in their larger, solid form. In fact, a little beet goes such a long way in a juicer that I was worried that a beet-based salad would be overwhelmingly beety. It was not.

I discovered this recipe on Serious Eats only a day or so after reading the article in the Times, and we tried it right away. It's adapted from a Jaime Oliver recipe, and is typical of his simple "Jaime at Home" recipes. I used a mandoline slicer to cut the beet and pear and, based upon the trouble I had with my pears, I would recommend that you be sure to buy firm pears. (Bosch pears are pretty, but made for a mushier salad than I would have liked — note mushiness in photo below.) We also cut the amount of cheese in half...oh, and I couldn't find any mint, so we went without. Still, the salad exceeded our expectations!

4 comments:

LoveANewIdea said...

Beet Note: for Valentine's Day, you can tike slices of beets, and use a small heart cookie cutter to make red hears - these look great tossed over a salad.

ErinM said...

Ooooo! Beety, lovey fun!

Anonymous said...

This looks fabulous. I love beets, but they are such a mess. I have to get motivated to work with them, but I do so love them...and the greens are excellent too!!!!

ErinM said...

Hi Meira! The beets were a bit challenging to deal with, not only because they're so firm and bleed magenta everywhere, but also because they're kind of small. I had a hard time getting them though my mandoline. This might be because my mandoline isn't the greatest, but I wouldn't julinenne these any other way!