Root Vegetable Salad Yum

Root vegetables are so versatile in any recipe you use.  They can be roasted, baked, sautéed, mashed or even eaten raw!  They have an earthy taste when raw that turns sweet when you cook them. 
I’ve recently become addicted to gardening and have planted beets.  As part of growing them, the stems need to be thinned out in the beginning stages.  We ended up with plenty of beet greens during this process and I immediately knew we were having them as our salad base that night.

To keep in theme, I decided to roast up some carrots and sweet potatoes.  Sadly, I didn’t have beet root or I would have added that to the sheet pan also.

A good salad to me is all about the depth of flavors it has and the layers of textures created within.  I used honey dijon vinaigrette to add a little zing and saltiness to the salad.

To build the textures, I added in apples and pistachios for crunch.  For the flavors, I roasted the veggies with salt, pepper, and paprika.

The beet greens have this earthy taste to them that was absolutely phenomenal.

Notes:
Ask your local farmer at the farmer’s market if they can save discarded greens for you.

If you don’t have enough beet greens, add in any other greens you prefer.  I recommend arugula for the peppery taste it adds.

Ingredients:
For the Salad:
3 c beet greens
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 med sweet potato, sliced and cubed
½ yellow onion, sliced
1 apple, chopped
1 c shelled pistachios
½ c dried cranberries
1 tsp paprika
1 Tbsp Avocado Oil
salt to taste
pepper to taste

For the dressing:
½ c Avocado Oil (or oil of your choice)
1/3 c balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp dijon mustard
1 Tbsp honey
salt to taste
Pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 425ºF
2. In a bowl, toss carrots, onions, and sweet potatoes with oil, salt, pepper, and paprika.  Spread out onto a baking sheet.
3. Roast veggies for 20 minutes.
4. In the same bowl used above, add greens, roasted veggies, apples, cranberries and pistachios.
5. Add all of the ingredients for the dressing in a jar, close the lid and shake well.
6. Drizzle over salad.  Toss well and serve.

Enjoy!