My Chouchoux: Roasted Beets and Peach Salad 烤甜菜根與桃子沙拉

Earlier last month month, I had the chance to go to a downtown neighborhood event called Cuisinez St-Roch. Pretty much all the food business owners on St Joseph Street in the St-Roch neighborhood (from restaurants to market places) were out selling their food at this big event. Besides tasting all the yummy food from the neighborhood restaurants, I was happy to see that there was one vendor who was selling local fresh fruits and vegetables (see pictures 2-5 below).

Since I wasn't able to resist all that fresh local produce, I ended up getting a couple of vegetables that day, including some beets. Because the color of the beets was so beautiful and unusual, I said to myself that I ought to make a recipe and take some photos of them to share with you! Usually when I bought beets, they were a deep, dark red color, but these early fall beets I bought had a beautiful pattern and tasted slightly between beets and radishes.

In the fall and winter, I particularly like them roasted, so the flavor is even sweeter and more intense. In this recipe, the peach vinaigrette really goes well with the salad, but the best thing is that you can make most of the ingredients in advance (like on a Sunday). Whenever you're ready, you just take them out from the fridge and throw everything together!

Roasted Beets and Peach Salad (4 Servings)

2-4 roasted beets (please click here for recipe)

2/3 C walnuts

1 Lettuce

4 peaches, sliced

peach-balsamic vinaigrette (please click here for recipe)

*Procedures 1-4 can be done in advance!

1. Cut the roasted beets into 1 cm thick slices.

2. Make the peach-balsamic vinaigrette

3. Wash lettuce

4. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Cut the walnuts into smaller pieces and toast them in the preheated oven for 5 minutes.

5. Cut the peaches into 1 cm slices.

6. Cut or tear the lettuce into bite-sized pieces.

7. Put the lettuce in a bowl and mix it with some of the vinaigrette.

8. Arrange the dressed lettuce with the peaches and beets on each individual plate. Drizzle with more dressing and sprinkle some toasted walnuts on top.

*You can pour the yummy beet juice from roasting over the salad too! (*^▽^*)

- Yvonne

早在上個月初時，我正好有機會去鄰近地區舉辦的美食特別活動 - Cuisinez St-Roch。為了讓大家品嚐與熟悉St-Roch區的美食，不只在St-Joseph街上一些有名的餐廳在街道上販賣他們的美食，就連平時販賣當地蔬果的商店也擺了一攤。(見上圖2-5)

平時看到漂亮又新鮮的蔬果就忍不住上前抓的我，當然不可能就這樣走過去就算了。當下就買了好幾樣，其中包括甜菜根、青蕃茄、高麗菜等等。回家切開之後發現顏色是那麼的特別又優雅，所以決定寫個食譜並拍些照片與大家分享。一般買回來的甜菜根都是呈暗紅色的，但是這些初秋的甜菜根比較小顆，並顯現著淡柔的桃紅色紋路，吃起來有點類似甜菜根，又有點類似白蘿蔔。