I’m on a roast beet kick. Having discovered they’re 3 for $2 at my local Ralph’s, they’ve been a mainstay of my “winter” salads. Winter is in quotes because this is southern California and there’s barely been an homage to winter this year. Regardless, yum.

This is a riff on my usual tomato salad and I think it worked out quite well. The key to this is, as far as I can tell, allowing everything to sit together covered at room temperature for as long as possible. This one sat at least 4 hours.

Some words on beet roasting, I chop off the greens, scrub, and then wrap them individually in tin foil with a dash of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Then its 425 for an hour. Once they’re cooked, you can sort of rub off the skin. Trying to peel it with a real peeler has not gone well for me. Also, definitely put the beets on something with sides. No matter how airtight I think I make the tin foil balls, some always ends up leaking out.

The ratios aren’t really super important, I used what was in the house but more tomato and less beet would be fine. Bell pepper optional but a good texture to have in the mix.

Roasted Beet Salad

2 1/2 large roasted beets, skinned, diced

1 tomato, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 green onions, finely sliced

1/4 sweet maya onion (regular onions are fine, red onion is also a good option, this is just what I had!)

1/2 yellow bell pepper, diced

olive oil

red wine vinegar

dash of onion powder

dash of garlic powder

salt (I add it in increments because tomatoes can absorb a lot of salt but you don’t want to go tooo overboard)

pepper

Toppings

Goat cheese! I sprinkled some herbed goat cheese on top, feta or some other of the crumbly cheeses seem to go best IMO

Pine nuts, Kyle opted out of these but I think they added a nice touch. A little crushed walnut would also work

Instructions, such as they are:

After all your fancy knife work making everything tiny, drizzle olive oil and red wine vinegar over until there’s a little accumulating at the bottom. Salt and pepper the mix then stir. Cover with plastic wrap and leave alone as long as possible someplace on the warmer side of room temperature.

Eat.