Golden Beet and Burrata Salad with Orange Poppyseed Dressing

A recipe from The Bitten Word

They say that necessity is the mother of invention.

But when it comes to summer vegetables, the opposite can also be true: Abundance is the mother of invention.

Trust us, we're not complaining. But that's just the situation we found ourselves in last week. We'd picked up a bunch of golden beets at the Sunday farmers market (along with green beans, the last of the season's asparagus and some other vegetables we couldn't say no to). Then, on Wednesday, our CSA share came in, full of cabbage, kale, carrots and peas.

So one night for dinner, we pulled out the beets, determined to do something with them. We whipped up this salad, and we're in love.

We're crazy about beets, but roasting them takes a long time (and turns our kitchen into a sweat lodge). But raw beets are so dense that they can be unappetizing and hard to eat. We figured that by slicing the beets super thin -- using our handy-dandy Kyocera Japanese mandoline -- we could get away with serving the beets raw.

Rooting around for some stuff to make a dressing, we found a couple more ingredients we wanted to use up: a lemon and an orange (extra that we'd bought for our Grilled Sangria) and some poppy seeds (last seen in this Strawberry, Almond and Pea Salad). We juiced the citrus and threw the ingredients in a jar with some oil and vinegar, and voila -- a dressing. We threw in some chopped parsley straight from our garden.

In fact, we liked it so much that we served it again for Clay's birthday dinner this past weekend. That time around, we threw in some fresh burrata cheese, because OBVIOUSLY. It adds a great creamy richness.

We really love this Golden Beet salad. It's wonderfully light and refreshing salad with a great, slightly sweet dressing. 

As we said, sometimes an overabundance of great veggies leads to new invention. 

 

 

Golden Beet and Burrata Salad with Orange Poppyseed Dressing 
A recipe from The Bitten Word

Makes 4 to 6 servings

NOTE: If you have a little extra time, toss this salad in the dressing up to an hour prior to serving. That will allow the beets to soak up more flavor and become more tender.

INGREDIENTS 

Salad

5-6 medium golden beets, stemmed, peeled and sliced as thinly as possible, using a mandoline if available
Orange Poppyseed Dressing (recipe below)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
6 oz fresh burrata or mozzerella cheese

Orange Poppyseed Dressing

1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/3 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 tablespoon poppy seeds, plus more for garnish if desired

 

DIRECTIONS

Make the dressing: Combine all ingredients in medium bowl or jar with a screw-on lid. Shake the jar like your life depends on it. Give it a taste. Too sour? Add a pinch of sugar. Too sweet? Add a bit more acid. Keep mixing till it suits your tastes. 

Make the salad: Toss the thin-sliced beets in the dressing. Let sit for 10-15 minutes (or proceed immediately if you're short on time). Toss in parsely. Plate on four separate plates; divide cheese evenly among the servings. Top each salad with a sprinkle of more poppyseeds, if desired.