Blue Cheese and Beet Salad

(Photo from Epicurious)

For a few weeks now, I have been getting a produce delivery from Mile High Organics.  Every week they deliver a selection of seasonal fruits and veggies to my office. Normally I leave all the fruit in my office for daily snacking and take all the veggies home for dinners. I have really enjoyed these deliveries and coupled with my weekly Royal Crest milk delivery I have significantly pared down my grocery trips and eliminated a lot of my meat intake. This week I received Bananas, Apples, Oranges, Romaine, Beets, Celery and Broccoli. On Tuesday night I made Pam's Caesar Salad, found on Pioneer Woman Cooks (delicious, but be warned you will end the day a bit garliky) and while toasting the croutons, I roasted the beets.

Last night after the beets had chilled for a day, I peeled them and made a beet salad for dinner. Now don’t get me wrong… there are a million delicious beet salads floating around cyberspace, my favorites usually involve a combination of beets, nuts and blue cheese. I wanted to try this recipe because it also includes two of my other favorites – dill and cider vinegar (which I could drink).

Sorry, no photo included today.   My night time food shots are not coming out to well and shooting in natural light is hard for a working girl.


Beet Salad with Blue Cheese
(adapted from a recipe found at widmerscheese.com)

Salad:
2 pounds golden beets (or red beets), roasted in an oven for an hour and chilled
4 green onions, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped (I used a ¼ a teaspoon of dried)
3/4 cups Blue cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup hickory nuts, toasted in the oven (I used toasted walnuts)

Dressing:
1-1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
4 tablespoons canola oil
1/4 teaspoon salt

Peel cooked beets, chill and cut into slices or batons. Whisk together all the ingredients for the dressing. Mix the dressing with the beet mixture. Combine with green onions, dill and half of the blue cheese. Arrange the salad in bowl or platter and sprinkle the top with the remaining blue cheese and toasted nuts.