Roasted Beet and Arugula Salad with Feta and Toasted Pine Nuts

Caramelized beets, peppery arugula, salty feta, and toasted pine nuts were meant to be together – perfect for a dinner party, but real good for a #notsad desk lunch

Happy New Year!!!&%$#

2018?!! How?? It’s the future, dudes. I still remember slow-dancing to the Armageddon soundtrack til midnight in my friend’s garage in 2000…omg. Here we are, and as much as I don’t want this to be about cliche New Year’s Resolutions, more than likely you enjoyed yourself over the holidays, and possibly want to rein yourself in with some light and healthy meals? If I’m way off, then it’s just me projecting.

I think we can all agree that it’s a little hard to come down from the ‘high’ of the holiday season. But January is obviously a really good time to push the ‘reset’ button after all of the indulgence in December. I don’t really believe in New Year’s resolutions, because they never seem to stick, but this time around I’ve been doing a lot of self-reflection and have decided to write down my intentions for January 2018. I won’t bore you with the whole list, but the highlights include being much more organized, being less critical of myself, taking more deep breaths, and squashing little hang-ups and fear.

Ok, back to salads. I’m so excited to share this recipe with you, because I literally roast beets like this all the time! In the oven, they get really sweet and a little caramelized, which is 1000% times more delicious than boiling them.

Basically, I trim off the tough root-end of each beet, put them on a big piece of aluminum foil, drizzle a bit of olive oil, sprinkle a tiny bit of kosher salt, wrap them up, and throw them into the oven. I’m a little embarrassed to say that I’ve forgotten the beets in the oven NUMEROUS times, and the beets are always ok. It is very hard to overcook a beet. That being said, don’t try to rush the roast, you want to give them enough time to soften up in the oven.

I think I could eat this salad every day, no joke. I LOVE the combination of the sweet beets, peppery arugula, salty feta, and toasty pine nuts. I add some sliced scallions because I really like the mellow onion flavor in salads, it adds so much flavor without overpowering the star of the show, ze beets. I keep the ‘dressing’ very minimal because there’s enough going on. Before serving, I just drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil on top, with a tiny bit of syrupy, aged balsamic vinegar, and freshly ground black pepper. Too good.

Make this salad, and conquer everything on your list this year. I wish you all the courage to reach out and grab the things you want in life.