Roasted Beetroot Salad with Blood Orange, Asparagus and Orange OilPrint Recipe

I have spent the last couple of weeks in New York skirting around the pumpkins. I will get there – certainly with my Bourbon Pumpkin Pie and maybe some Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins but for now I am holding on to the remnants of Summer – a Summer that I almost entered into in my vacation to Australia. 

In my mind Summer calls for salads and this one is from an excellent Australian Chef – Peter Doyle. He and his family ran a pletherer of markets and restaurants in Sydney – all around seafood, but generally anything they did was fantastic. He served this at one of his eating establishments, Cicada. I have only been there once and had an amazing dinner (that’s another funny story but I will save that one for later).

So, back to skirting pumpkins – there are alot of nice looking beetroots around, not to mention blood oranges. I remembered this salad that I made long ago and was quite pleased with it. I could say that its apt in Autumn because of its colours; the reds, the burnt oranges and if your lucky enough to get your hands on some yellow beets you will also have a nice amber colour too.

It is the Orange Oil that is the hero here – it dresses the vegetables and salad leaves with a wonderful and refreshing citrus flavour. So Autumn, Spring or Summer, it really doesn’t matter – this super healthy salad will tantalise those tastebuds and is very pretty to look at too.

Orange Oil
2 cups strained orange juice
2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons grapeseed oil

Salad
2 large beetroots or around 8 small (beets)
2 bulbs red whitlof (Belgian Endive) leaves separated, washed and dried
1 bunch frisee (curly endive) washed and dried
1 bunch mache leaves (or any other mild soft gourmet salad green)
2 blood oranges, peeled and sliced into rounds
24 green asparagus spears, peeled and blanched
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted

Walnut Vinaigrette
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon walnut oil
4 tablespoons olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper

To make the orange oil, reduce the citrus juices over medium heat until syrup-like then cool to room temperature (mine reduced to around 1/2 a cup). Whisk in the grapeseed oil and reserve.

Meanwhile, roast the beetroot. Preheat the oven 350 degrees. Trim the stems of the beetroot, leaving 1/2 inch. Wrap the stems in foil and roast the beetroot in the oven for one hour for larger beets or around 1/2 for the smaller. Allow to cool, then peel and cut each large beetroot into 12 wedges. (I used the smaller beets and simply halved them)

To make the walnut vinaigrette, whisk together the walnut oil and olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve, toss the whitloff, frisee and mache leaves in the walnut vinaigrette and place in the center of the plate. Arrange the beetroot, blood orange, asparagus and pine nuts over the greens. Drizzle with orange oil and serve.

Source: adapted from Peter Doyle

© 2010, Michelle. All rights reserved.