Ingredients:

• 3 Beets
• 1 Avocado
• 2 Sweet potatoes
• Lettuce (I used little gems)
• 1/8 cup pine nuts
• 2 Tb. dressing of your choice
• 1/4 cup crumbled gorgonzola or goat cheese

Serves: 2

Time: 8 minutes (not including roasting time for the sweet potatoes and beets. You will roast your beets and sweet potatoes the night before you make the salad, which takes about 45 minutes.)

Instructions

This salad is beautiful and colorful. It’s a great dish to make when you want to take a break from meat-driven meals. I love chicken, pork, steak, and fish, but sometimes a fresh, vegetable-forward salad is what I really crave. The key to this meal is to make sure you roast your beets and sweet potatoes the night before you want to make the salad. Beets and sweet potatoes take about 45 minutes to roast in a 400 degree oven. You can also buy pre-cooked beets and sweet potatoes, and that works great too.

Step 1:

The night before, roast your beets and sweet potatoes in a 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes. Cool, put in tupperware (or a plastic bag) and stick them in the fridge. If you’re using whole beets, cut off the greens before you roast.

I got the most beautiful purple sweet potatoes in my CSA food box, and was delighted to use them, but sweet potatoes of any color will work wonderfully.

Step 2: Chop!

This salad basically just requires you to wash and chop. Make sure everything is washed, and then chop everything into bite sized pieces. Start with the cutting up the beets and sweet potatoes:

Then, cut up the lettuce:

(you can see a little beet juice stain underneath the lettuce. Do not make this while wearing a white shirt. Beets are messy!)

Chop the avocado:

Get out your favorite dressing, I love Cindy’s Kitchen — this dressing is so good, and it’s low in calories and other things we try to avoid.

Throw 2 Tb. of dressing on top of the lettuce, avocado, beets, and sweet potatoes, and toss:

Plate the dressed salad, top with the gorgonzola and pine nuts, and you’ve got a great meal!