Roasted beet and plum salad with toasted walnuts and fresh mint

Name: Roasted beet and plum salad with toasted walnuts and fresh mint
Yield: 2 serving
Ingredients: 4 small-medium beets; 4 plums of any colour; 1 cup of cooked bulgur; ½ cup of walnuts; a generous handful of fresh mint leaves; 3 Tbs of extra virgin olive oil; The juice of half a lemon; pepper

User Reviews

5.0

6 reviews

Excellent

Servings
2
Course
Salad
Cuisine
International

Roasted beet and plum salad with toasted walnuts and fresh mint

Ethan Patterson

Report

A vibrant salad that is also a complete meal with proteins, good fat, and tons of flavour. This amount of salad will feed two people, so double amounts for more.

Share:

I Made This!

Be the first!

Print

5 people printed this

Save this

Be the first!

Ingredients

Servings

4 small-medium beets
4 plums of any colour
1 cup of cooked bulgur quinoa, couscous, or any other cooked grain you like (even whole grain rice will be fine, but then I suggest turning it into a warm salad by heating up the rice) - if you don't know how to cook bulgur, I will explain in the bottom of the recipe.
½ cup of walnuts
a generous handful of fresh mint leaves basil and thyme will also do well here
3 Tbs of extra virgin olive oil
The juice of half a lemon
pepper to taste

Add to Shopping List

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375F. Cover a baking sheet with tin foil (trust me, this is necessary, the beets bleed).
Wash your beets. Cut off the green tops and any tails in the bottom. Place beets on a piece of tinfoil large enough to cover them in groups of two or four, and drizzle them with olive oil, salt and pepper. Wrap tinfoil around beets tightly. (If you have more than just four beets, this is a good time to roast them all together and freeze the others, or even keep in the fridge for other salads during the week). Place in oven for 40 minutes to an hour, checking to see if beets are ready after 40 by prickling them with a fork (if fork slides in easily, the beets are ready).
While beets are cooking, wash your plums and cut them in half, taking out the stones. If such a dish is available, arrange plums in a small oven-safe casserole dish, and add them to the oven with the beets for the last 20 minutes (I add mine after 30 minutes of the beets cooking, or after the whole 40 minutes if I know I have a lot of beets). If you don't have a small casserole dish, just add them to the same baking sheet as the beets. That way, if the beets are ready before the plums, I take their pouches out first and let the plums cook a bit more. If the plums cook extra, it will still be fine, just make sure they don't burn. They should still keep their shape - if they don't, don't worry about cutting them further.
When the beets have cooked, let them cool a bit. Remove peel with a paper towel (or a knife, whatever is easier for you).
Meanwhile, chop walnuts coarsely, and toast them on a medium hot pan shortly, for just five minutes, stirring them often to ensure they don't burn (do not leave the room or do something else while your nuts are toasting. Trust me on that, unless you want burnt coals that will stink up your kitchen for hours).
Chop mint, coarsely or finely are both fine (it's really up to you).
Arrange cooked bulgur on a large platter. Cut beets and cooked plums into quarters (if plums are too soft to cut, don't worry about it), and arrange on top of the bulgur. Sprinkle with toasted walnuts. Chop mint and sprinkle on top. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and the juice of half a lemon. Serve, and only mix at the table, once everyone has had a good look at the beauty of this dish.
* Cooking bulgur couldn't be easier, just like couscous. The grains are already partially cooked, so all you need to do is rehydrate them. Pour one cup of uncooked bulgur into a large bowl. Boil water, and add two cups of boiling water atop the bulgur. Add one teaspoon of salt, and stir grains to make sure it spreads evenly. Cover bowl, and let bulgur steam for about 15 minutes, fluffing occasionally with a fork. And voila, your bulgur is ready!