Napa Valley may be known for it’s vino, but here’s a salad I came across this week on a fascinating tour of Simi Winery in Sonoma. You’ll see more on our Simi adventure soon, but this salad deserved to be treated like breaking news! The flavors are so alive, and the edible ‘dirt’ the salad sits on is simply delicious! I just HAD to have the recipe to share with you! Made with garden fresh beets roasted to perfection. Yes please!
Directions:
For the beets:
Preheat oven to 425°F. Wipe or scrub beets clean then trim stems down to one-inch (leave “tails” on). Place beets on a large piece of foil; drizzle with olive oil, then wrap foil around them to form a neat packet. Roast directly on rack in middle of oven until tender, about 1 hour. Test for doneness by piercing the largest beet with a knife. If it enters easily, it’s done. Unwrap beets and let sit until cool enough to handle. Use your hands or a paring knife to peel skin, then cut into 1/8 pieces. Set aside.
For Avocado:
Take flesh out of avocado and puree smooth with lemon juice and season to taste. Put in squeeze bottle.
For Scallions:
Coat scallions with olive oil. Grill till charred. Cool and cut into ½ inch pieces
For Edible “dirt”:
Mix all ingredients together. bake in oven for 15 mins. (325º w/convection) Cool, then grind in robotcoupe
For Cheese:
Take rind off and cut ½ inch cubes
For the vinaigrette:
In a small bowl, whisk together the juices of meyer lemon and orange, zest, honey, salt, pepper. Whisking constantly, slowly add the oil in a steady stream. (Alternatively, add all your ingredients to a jar, cover with lid, and shake vigorously to blend.) Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
For the salad:
Put beets in bowl and drizzle vinaigrette on. Let marinate for 10-15 mins. Place about 1 oz edible “dirt” on plate in a line. Randomly place beets on top of “dirt”. Randomly place scallions around as well. Put cheese around as well keeping the whole placement of all items following line. Lay some water cress leaves on top of everything. Then squeeze avocado puree into round dollops beside the salad randomly. Drizzle some of the vinaigrette over everything.
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Ingredients
Beets
- 1 bunch medium red beets (about 3)
- 1 bunch medium golden beets (about 3)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Avocado
- 2 avocados
- 1 lemon, juiced
- salt to taste
Scallions
- 2 scallions
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
Edible “dirt”
- 4.4 oz sugar
- 4.4 oz almond flour
- 2.6 oz AP flour
- .9 oz coffee, ground
- 3.5 oz butter, melted
- .4 oz salt
Cheese
- 3 oz Cowgirl Creamery Capriago
Watercress
- 1 bunch watercress
Vinaigrette
- 1 Meyer lemon, juiced
- zest from 1 Meyer lemon
- ½ orange, juiced
- zest from orange
- 1 tablespoon honey
- pinch salt and black pepper
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil