Roasted Beet and Citrus Salad

Posted On April 7, 2021

Roasted Beet and Citrus Salad is a nutritious, delicious, and healthy meal! This colorful salad has Roasted Beets, orange slices, a mix of salad greens, beet greens, grilled Halloumi, farro, and toasted almonds with ginger-garlic citrus dressing. It’s a beautiful pop of colors in a bowl on this beautiful spring day!

Do you know the beets have many health benefits? They improve digestive health, help keep blood pressure in check, can reduce anemia symptoms, improve athletic performance, and help reduce inflammation. I used baby beets with their greens. When baby beets are roasted right, beets become candy-sweet, while maintaining an intense earthiness. You can boil beets, it’s a faster way to cook beets but you lose too much juice of beets. So, what’s the better way to cook beets? Drizzle EVOO over the beets on a cookie sheet pan with garlic cloves and thyme sprigs. cover tightly with aluminum foil and put the sheet pan in the preheated oven at 425degree F for 30 minutes.

This salad contains two different kinds of oranges, blood orange, and clementine. You should be able to find these different oranges at your local grocery store as these oranges are in season (from about December through May) here in the northeast USA. You can use these oranges or oranges of your choice and the recipe can be easily adapted to your personal preferences and taste. 

Let’s go over the salad ingredients :

Baby Beets: You can get baby red beets from the farmer’s market. They come in a bunch and greens are attached to the beets. I used red beets but you can use golden beets or red and golden beets.

Salad Greens: I like to use Romaine lettuce, baby arugula, and baby spinach. You can use choice of your greens.

Citrus: I used blood orange and clementine. You should be able to find these oranges at your local grocery store or farmer’s market as these oranges are in season (from about December through May) here in the northeast USA. You can use these oranges or oranges of your choice and the recipe can be easily adapted to your personal preferences and taste. 

Italian Pearled Farro: Farro are similar in texture to brown rice or barley, but with a much more pleasant, almost nutty taste.

Haloumi cheese: It’s a semi-hard cheese that’s made mainly from sheep milk. Often time it could be combined with goat and cow’s milk too. I grilled the cheese slices and then cubed them to put them in the salad.

Let’s go over the steps to make salad:

Wash baby beets well. Cut the greens off of the beets. Drizzle EVOO, salt, pepper over the beets on a baking sheet. Add garlic cloves and 2-3 thyme sprigs. Cover with aluminum foil and roast for 30 minutes in a preheated oven at 425 degrees F. Set aside to cool completely, and then, remove the skins from beets and quarter/slice the beets. Make sure to wear gloves or use a paper towel to remove the skin from the beets otherwise your hands will get all red.

Toast the almonds in a separate baking sheet. Let cool.

Grill Halloumi cheese strips and then cube.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add rinsed and drained Farro. Toast for 2-3 minutes. the color will darken slightly and farro will have a nutty aroma. Add 2 cups of water, Salt, 5 thyme sprigs. Bring it to a boil and then reduce it to simmer. Cover and cook for 25 minutes or until al dente. Drain Farro well and pour over the cut beet greens in a big salad serving bowl.

Combine Blood orange juice, orange juice, olive oil, red wine vinegar, honey in a medium bowl. Mix well. Add salt, pepper, grated ginger, and minced garlic to it, and mix well.

In a large serving bowl, layer Beet greens with cooked farro. Add other salad greens(baby arugula, baby spinach, and chopped romaine lettuce), toasted almonds, quartered beets, halloumi cheese cubes, blood orange, and clementine slices. Make sure that all the ingredients are well spread out. You can toss the salad with ginger-garlic citrus dressing. Mix well and serve!

There are other delicious salads you will enjoy! Tabouleh Salad, Pear Gorgonzola Salad