Yummy Beet Salad

Today, Sharon shares a fab recipe to treat your beets:

I discovered my love of beets last year, and was even more drawn to them when I learned that they are a great source of vitamins A and C, are high in folates and antioxidants, and are a great digestive. Here’s one of my favorite new ways to prepare them:

Beet Salad

Serves 8 or more

8 medium beets

4 navel oranges, peeled, segmented, and cubed

¾ cup chopped walnuts

6-8 stems of thyme, de-stemmed and roughly chopped (plus a few for garnish)

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 package of goat cheese crumbles

salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

1. Wash and boil beets with skins on for about 25 minutes (or as long as it takes to be able to pierce close to the center of the beet with ease).

2. Cool beets and while still warm, pull skin off by applying medium pressure against the skin. Slice and cube the beets to desired size (a bit smaller than ½ inch chunks works well). Place in refrigerator to chill.

3. In a separate bowl, toss orange pieces, walnuts, and thyme with olive oil.

4. Just before serving time, toss together the beets, orange/walnut/thyme mixture, and goat cheese (add as much or as little as you want) and season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish with reserved sprigs of thyme. (Note: you want to wait until the last minute to mix the beets to preserve the color of the other ingredients before serving.)

Other add-in options:

Blue cheese instead of goat cheese

Parsley or oregano

A touch of brown sugar - to bring out sweetness of beets

Black beans

Avocado

Crushed tortilla chips