Saturday, August 28, 2010

Baby Greens with Beets, Chevre, Oranges, Hazelnuts and Fresh Orange Vinaigrette

For those who don't like beets, give this appetizer salad a try. They pair amazingly with goats cheese and a fresh orange vinaigrette. This salad is great served before a fancy entree.
I had this salad at Bambara in Salt Lake for my birthday and loved it. This is my re-creation of it.*This recipe calls for sectioned oranges. I did not get around to taking pictures of that while I went, but HERE is a great tutorial for those of you who do not know how to section an orange.

Serves 6

Ingredients(Salad):
  • 6 cups Spring Green Lettuce Mix
  • 3 Golden Beets, roasted, peeled, and wedged
  • 3 Purple Beets, roasted, peeled, and wedged
  • 2 Oranges, Sectioned
  • 6 oz. Chevre(Goats Cheese)
  • 1/2 c.+ Whipping Cream
  • 1/3 c. Hazelnuts, chopped and toasted
Ingredients(dressing):
  • 1 c. Fresh squeezed Orange Juice
  • 1/3 c. Canola Oil
  • 1/8 t. Ground Mustard
  • 1 1/2 T. White Wine Vinegar
  • 1/2 t. Minced Garlic
  • Salt and Pepper, to taste
  • 3 T. Honey, plus more to taste

For the dressing: Heat the freshly squeezed orange juice in a small saucepan to boiling. Reduce heat slightly and let simmer until the volume is reduced to 1/4 c. Remove from the heat and let cool.
Place the reduced orange juice in a small food processor or blender along with the oil, vinegar, mustard powder, garlic, honey, salt and pepper. Blend until emulsified. Taste and add more honey, if desired. Keep chilled.

For the Salad: Place the goats cheese in a small bowl. Slowly mix in as much cream as needed to make the goats cheese smooth and thin enough to pipe.
Pipe out the goats cheese(I just use a heavy duty quart Ziploc) onto 6 salad plates, about 6 small dollops per plate in a circular fashion. Then place 3 of each color beet wedge in between the goats cheese, also in a circular fashion.
Place 1 c. per plate of spring greens in the center of the cheese and beet circle. Add 4-5 orange sections per plate to the spring greens.
Sprinkle about 1T. hazelnuts on top of, and around the salad.
Drizzle the fresh orange vinaigrette on top and serve.

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