Roasted beet and goat cheese salad

I made this salad for dinner the night we received our first basket from the Bryson Farms CSA. I've had a similar salad at one of my favourite restaurants in Ottawa, the Wellington Gastropub. This was actually the first time I've ever cooked beets, since Paul always thought that he didn't like them, and I thought that it would be really messy. Well, Paul loved them, and maybe it's just because they were golden beets instead of the regular red, but they weren't messy at all. The salad was fabulous; probably the best salad I've ever made, which is pretty amazing considering it's November. Here's how I made it:

What I used:

• 2 golden beets (CSA)
• 6c mixed baby greens (CSA)
• sprinkle of radish micro-greens (CSA)
• 75g soft goat's cheese, crumbled
• 1/3 recipe Karey's All-purpose Vinaigrette (olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, maple syrup version)

What I did:

1. To roast beets: trim root and stem ends of each beet. Wrap individual beets in foil, place in baking dish, and roast in 400* oven for about 1 hour (can be done up to 3 days in advance). Allow to cool for 15 minutes, then carefully open foil and use foil to scrape skin off of beet. Cut beet into 1 cm cubes.
2. Toss beets and baby greens with Vinaigrette. Sprinkle with micro-greens and goat's cheese.
3. Serve and enjoy!

What we thought:

Served with Shake and Bake pork loin chops (CLASSY!) and leftover roasted red-skin potatoes. This made a huge salad. I was sure that there was no way we'd eat it all, but we were fighting over the last of it. The mixed greens contained some kind of green (mustard?) that had a delicious horseradish-like bite, but they weren't unpleasantly bitter which is a problem I occasionally have with mixed greens (I'm looking at you, radicchio!). The beets were perfectly cooked and tasted sweet and earthy. And I didn't stain anything while preparing them! Go me! Next time, I'll try adding walnuts (or other nuts) to the salad and I may try using Vinaigrette made with walnut oil. And there will definitely be a next time!