Beet Dressing for Salad

Beet Vinaigrette

Beets and balsamic vinegar vary in sweetness, so you may have to tweak the mix of sweet and sour occasionally.

Ingredients

4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (I use Napa Valley Organics)

1 tablespoon honey (I use organic Manuka honey)

3 tablespoons olive oil (I use organic olive oil from Costco)

1 teaspoon sea salt or Himalayan salt

14 ounces boiled beets (cut into 1-2 inch pieces)

Bring to a boil and simmer the beets until soft.  If the beets are small, wash and boil them with the skins on and then rub the skin off when they are hot.  If the beets are large, then peel, cut and boil them until they are soft.

I use a magic bullet to puree the beets.  Put the vinegar, then honey, olive oil and salt into the blender first.  Put the warm beets into the mixture.  If the beets are still warm, then the honey will be more easily incorporated into the puree.  Puree all of the ingredients.  Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator.  

I use this dressing with arugula. My friends Mark and Eva brought it and made a salad with it at my house.  I loved it so much that I back-engineered the recipe with ingredients that I had on hand.  This is the origin of my recipe. 

Glop it onto lettuce and do not toss it.  A piquant cheese is also a good addition to salad with this beet dressing.   Make my shredded beets (on this blog)  with raspberry vinaigrette and place them in the middle of a platter of arugula with the beet dressing poured onto the arugula. I dress the arugula first with a little salt and lemon juice just before serving and then put globs of the beet dressing onto the arugula.  

About Saving Dragonfiles

ON SAVING DRAGONFLIES – This blog is my attempt to communicate what I’ve learned while trying to eat sustainable organic and local food.   

I never thought much about how food was grown until I read The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan.  It changed my life and how I think about food.  His books and subsequent reading made me angry – about what they do to food these days.  It just seems to lack common sense.

Organic Food Around Cambridge - Boston in the Summer:  We would often visit Hutchins Farm in Concord, MA on the weekend after walking at Punkatasset and Saw Mill Brook or Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.  Hutchins is exceptional in its abundance and diversity of organic produce.  Another great place to get organic produce is the Blue Heron Farm in Lincoln.  It is a beautiful place and not very far from Boston. Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge carries some really interesting organic vegetables and fruits. Cambridge and Boston both have Whole Food and Trader Joe’s markets. 

Organic Food Around Franklin, PA in the Summer:  I grew up here.  The farmer’s market, especially on Saturday has some great produce.  You must ask if they use fertilizers and pesticides – here people do not generally get certified because of the expense and paperwork.   My favorite vendor in Franklin is the Bend Farm.  This farm was started by a chef and his wife -- they have fabulous produce and sometimes sell organic olive oil and chicken.  They also sometimes have wild chanterelle mushrooms.  There is a stand every other week - Robyn’s Nest - where an artist sells small hand painted objects but also sells wild produce (like ramps) and jams made from wild berries.  I bought wild dandelion glaze and wild violet jam from her --- we just love her stand. Chatley’s Greenhouse claims to not use pesticides and they have beautiful produce.  The owner gave me a chestnut tree for free once.  I ask the farmers how they grow things and have on occasion had them save me some produce that they grew without chemicals even if most of their produce was grown conventionally.  My family buys beef in bulk from a certified organic farm, Ron Gargasz Organic Farms.   Ron Gargasz is an organic chemist and also taught at a local college as a key member in founding a Sustainable Systems graduate program.   If you ever visit his farm, you will see that his whole way of life is literally built on the principle of sustainability.