Joy America Café’s chef Jason Horwitz has made a career out of fine tuning his highly imaginative recipes with unusual or unexpected ingredients. His arugula and roasted beet salad is a case in point. The salt-roasting technique concentrates the flavor of the beets wonderfully.
4 medium beets
olive oil
salt and pepper
2 medium vidalia onions
1 pound fresh arugula
half cup pitted calamata, green and manzanilla olives
half cup shaved red onion
two medium oranges
shaved manchego cheese (or crumbled feta) for garnish
sherry vinaigrette (two parts oil, one part sherry vinegar)
Wash and peel beets, trimming the stem end, then toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place on flat end in a shallow baking pan lined to the depth of about 1 inch with coarse kosher salt. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake in a 350-degree oven 45 to 60 minutes until fork tender.
Remove beets from pan, allow to cool, then slice to 1/4-inch thickness.
Arrange slices in the bottoms of individual salad bowls. Clean arugula, and break into large chunks. Thinly slice strips of red onion, enough for half a cup. Peel the oranges, and cut thinly, crosswise. Pick out seeds. Toss arugula, olives, onion and oranges with sherry vinaigrette, salt and pepper. Arrange arugula salad on top of the beets, and garnish with curls of firm manchego cheese, shaved with a potato peeler. Also works well with crumbled feta cheese. Serves 6.
