Roasted Beet Salad

A few weeks ago I stumbled across one of my new favourite blogs called Sunday Suppers. Sunday Suppers is a site dedicated to documenting the collaborative effort between Casey Solomon and Karen Mordechai. Solomon and Mordechai are passionate about food and have combined their talents in developing cooking classes with the goal of "pairing friends and food" and creating "seasonal and fresh meals together." The Sunday Suppers blog showcases all of their fabulous recipes as well as gorgeous photos from their classes. Sunday Suppers is a very inspiring blog that shares a lot of the same goals and values that I have in my own cooking, in particular, the significance of a collaborative creation! Here I have made Sunday Suppers Roasted Beet Salad. The salad is fresh and delicious, and a perfect healthy accompaniment to any meal, not to mention gorgeous with its beautiful bold colours.

Note: I made a smaller serving of this salad (for 4 people) and just estimated the amounts for the vinaigrette and it worked out great, so feel free to play around. Don't feel restricted by your measuring cups and spoons!

Note: If you don't have shallots, you may use another type of sweet onion. I didn't have shallots on hand so I finely chopped some Vidalia onions and the flavour was great.

Tip: Wear rubber gloves when handling the beets. Once you have gotten beet juice on your shirt you'll understand!

Ingredients:

24 baby beets, scrubbed with stems cut

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil

1 bunch of mint

Directions:

1. Toss beets with olive oil and salt, wrap in a double layer of foil and roast in a 375º oven for 45 minutes.

2. While beets are roasting, make the vinaigrette. Mix together shallots, sugar, salt, and vinegar. Slowly stream in olive oil while whisking constantly.

3. Remove beets from oven and let stand for 10 minutes, still wrapped in foil. Peel if desired.

4. Cut beets in halves or quarters and toss with vinaigrette. Tear mint leaves over beets and fold in gently. Serve warm or chilled.