Roasted Beet & Carrot Salad

     Most often my favorite meals are ones that simply evolve out of what I have on hand. Cooking creativity at its best! Although I will say for most of my life I have been a recipe follower. If you cook regularly or have been doing it for a lot of years you get a feel for things, like which textures or flavors are going to compliment each other. More recently I find myself trying a lot of new ingredients as well. Just last week I was making a salad and grabbed a small can of black olives from the cabinet. Once I opened it I realized I had finely chopped olives and not sliced olives. Well that wasn't going to work in my salad! After a few moments of thinking, olive tapenade came to mind. So I tossed the chopped olives in a bowl, along with some chopped parsley and garlic. Then stirred in some olive oil and lemon juice. Now I had olive tapenade on crackers and a great unplanned appetizer.

     The story of Roasted Beet & Carrot Salad also begins with a can from the cabinet. This time a can of whole beets. My husband likes to buy the sliced pickled beets for his salads. He recently realized he brought home the plain whole ones and was disappointed. I said no problem, I will figure out something to do with them. Really I had no idea and I wasn't even sure I would like canned beets. I know I love fresh beets but canned beets are something I never use. So last night I pulled out that can, open it up and see these cute little round beets. After draining them, the first thought I had was to roast them. They were already cooked but I was thinking roasting would help the flavor of them. I also cut up some carrots to roast with the beets. Once this was done I could have stopped there and had a nice vegetable side dish but I wanted something that was more a whole meal. That is when these roasted vegetables became a salad. You will first want to roast the vegetables, then let them cool. I let them sit on the counter and they cooled down enough by the time I had the salad and dressing prepared. We don't get fresh beets often here on Guam so it turned out this can of whole beets was a pretty good substitute! One new ingredient I have recently been using is hemp seeds. I am able to buy them here at the Seventh Day Adventist health food store, Simply Foods. After seeing another recipe using them I did some researched and was surprised to read what a super food these little seeds are. If you aren't sure about putting hemp seeds on your salad then substitute in another seed or nut.

Roasted Beets & Carrots
Serves 4
printable recipe

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Ingredients:
1- 15 oz. can whole beets, drained & cut in half
1 - 2 carrots, washed and cut into 1" chunks
olive oil
sea salt
dried Italian herb mix
optional- 1 cup chopped long green beans

Directions:

Put the beets and carrots in an oven proof dish. Drizzle with olive oil, generous sprinkle of dried herbs, and sprinkle of sea salt. Toss to combine. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, until carrots are tender. Time will depend on the size you cut vegetables. For even cooking cut vegetables same size.

Optional: Place the long green beans in a microwave dish along with 2 T. water. Cover with plastic wrap and cook for 3-4 minutes. During the last 10 minutes of roasting the beets & carrots, toss in the green beans.

If serving this as a vegetable side dish, you may like to squeeze on some lemon juice when it is done cooking.

For the Salad:

Toss in a bowl a generous amount of lettuce or a blend of lettuces, finely shredded red cabbage,  alfalfa sprouts. Top with garbanzo beans, the roasted vegetables and sprinkle with 1-2 T. of hemp seeds. Drizzle on some Thyme Vinaigarette Dressing.

Thyme Vinaigarette Dressing

1 tsp. dried thyme leaves or 3 t. fresh thyme leaves*
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
3 T. apple cider vinegar
4 T. extra virgin olive oil
1-2 T. pure maple syrup

Whisk together all the ingredients in a small bowl.

*You can substitute other herbs such as tarragon instead of the thyme.


More reading on hemp seeds:

http://www.purehealingfoods.com/hempHeartsInfo.php

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/beverage1/a/what-are-hemp-seeds.htm