We came across some beautiful beets today, and want to serve some weekend guests some rossted beet salad.
We want something simple, and not the regular with walnuts and goat cheese. Greens are OK, but we’re thinking beet-heavy and small red onions.
Bonus points for creative acids in the dressing…
Thanks!
Roast, then shred your beets.
Combine sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, sugar, minced ginger, diced garlic, then toss the shredded beets in the mixture. Refrigerate overnight.
Garnish with roasted sesame seeds before serving.
What a great suggestion!
Can you expound on what you mean by “shred”? Julienne? Coarse grate? Brunose? What do you like?
Grate with a box grater, using the coarse (or large) shred side
Best culinary malapropism of the day! 
That’s me, Leo Durocher!
I like roasted beet, fennel, orange, red onion with rice vinegar, orange marmalade, oo dressing. Sometimes over greens.
A local restaurant makes a beet salad I love. In addition to the beets, it has a piquillo pepper vinaigrette, pistachios and feta. It’s topped with microgreens. When I make a version of the salad at home I use the Trader Joe’s roasted pepper eggplant spread in the vinaigrette, and I put it over arugula instead of topping with microgreens. Your small red onions would play nicely with those flavors.
Two originally odd-to-me but delicious beet preps I use now both use yogurt.
One is an Ottolenghi recipe - the yogurt is mixed with tahini and preserved lemon, and dolloped over sliced or otherwise cut (I like wedges) beets (I season them with s&p and a bit of vinegar, you could use creative license). Red onions figure in this, so your small onions would work well. I really like the preserved lemon here.
The other is a Meera Sodha recipe for (South Indian) Beet Pachadi — the beets are tempered (mustard seeds, curry leaves if you have access) and sauteed with a paste of coconut, ginger, and mustard seeds, then dolloped with Greek yogurt. This also works well as a salad if you skip sautéing with the paste and sprinkle seasoned beets with fresh grated coconut, dollop with yogurt, and pour the tempering mix over it all.
(Don’t mix the yogurt in either before serving or it will all just look vaguely pink and messy.?
Leo Durocher?
It’s just like deja vu, all over again! Yogi Berra was the king.
That said, if you’re old enough to remember Norm Crosby…“The Master of Malaprop”. I must be simple because I still chuckle at his routines.
So as to not be guilty of thread drift…I love roasted beets and a green salad with a vinaigrette…its part of our regular salad routine. And I am totally guilty of never being bored of roasted beets, goat cheese and walnuts with a nice vinaigrette, a dressing with a little sweetness instead of being overly tart. Maybe with a good balsamic and honey…
Lemon juice, honey, microplaned/crushed garlic, ground cinnamon, ground cumin, chopped parsley and salt. Mix everything together and chill for several hours. Then serve with a drizzle of EVOO.
While I agree with you that nice tart plain yogurt pairs well with beets, it’s just the visual presentation of beets with yogurt brings back very bad memories of Jell-O salad from years gone by …
