Have some fun and make this festive salad with roasted beets, arugula, candied walnuts, goat cheese, and pomegranate seeds! Mixed with delicious citrus vinaigrette, it will be a great starter for a Summer dinner party!
To roast the beets in the oven, you need to cut off the stems. Then wash and pat dry. Wrap each beet in foil and bake at 400˚F for an hour. To make sure they are baked through, just pierce them with a fork.
When the beets are baked, let them cool off of a counter for at least an hour.
How to make candied walnuts
While the beets are roasting, put 1 cup walnuts, ¼ cup sugar, and 1 tbsp butter in a non-stick pan.
Heat over medium heat for 10-15 minutes, or until the sugar and butter are completely melted and coated the walnuts. Make sure you are constantly stirring, so the sugar doesn’t burn.
When the done, transfer the candied walnuts to a baking sheet with parchment paper and separate the nuts.
Let the nuts to cool off for at least 30 minutes.
If you don’t use all the nuts for the salad, you can keep the rest of them in an air-tight container.
How to make Roasted Beet Salad
Peel and cut 4 medium beets into 2x2 inches pieces.
Rinse and dry arugula.
Place all the ingredients on a plate, 5 cups arugula, diced beets, 1 cup candied walnuts, ¼ cup pomegranate seeds, and ⅓ cup goat cheese. Pour over the Citrus Salad Dressingor Lemon Vinaigrette..
Notes
NOTE 1: I prefer to roast the beets a night before or in the morning of making the salad. The reason I do it is it takes one hour to roast the beets, and then you want to completely cool them off (for another hour). Not to worry about this extra time, I just roast the beets a day before and then refrigerate them overnight.NOTE 2:If you want to mix all the ingredients with the dressing before serving, top it with goat cheese after you mix it up. Otherwise, the cheese with get pinkish color (from the beets) and will make the salad creamy. By sprinkling it at the very end, your salad presentation will look better.