Roasted Carrot and Beet Salad

Saeyoung is done with her internship and we're finally in the same place at the same time! We've been doing this awful shuffle all summer where I'm in Orange County while she's in Los Angeles and then mid-week we switch off. She makes my work week in Orange County infinitely more bearable.

She's been cooking dinner for the family lately since she isn't working anymore. You will notice her beautiful panzanella salad blogged about below. Today she made scallops with a tropical fruit salsa, which I am sure she will blog about later. It was quite delicious.

My contribution to dinner was a roasted carrot and beet salad with a minted greek yogurt dressing. It tasted fine but I think the plate looked too busy. I'm blaming it on the cucumber chunks in the dressing, it was one ingredient too much. Also the pine nuts were probably unnecessary. And the avocados were tasty but somewhat clumsy on the plate.

Edit edit edit. As in writing, as in food, all the same rules apply.

Ingredients:

2 medium beets

1 cup peeled baby carrots

1 sweet potato

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/3 teaspoon cumin

pinch of cinnamon

3 tablespoons of olive oil

2 teaspoons of salt

4 garlic cloves

for dressing:

1 1/2 cups of greek yogurt

juice of half a lemon

2 cucumbers, small dice, optional

3 teaspoons of chopped mint

1/2 teaspoon of crushed garlic

salt to taste

1. preheat oven to 400

2. wash and trim beets

3. wrap the beets along with the whole garlic cloves tightly in foil, making sure that there are no open vents for the steam

4. roast in the oven for about 1 hour

5. cube the sweet potato so that the segments are about the same thickness as the baby carrots

6. toss the carrots and the sweet potato cubes in a large bowl with the olive oil, the spices, and about 1 teaspoon of salt

7. spread the carrots and the sweet potatoes on a lined cookie sheet, making sure that none of the pieces are overlapping

8. bake in the oven for about 20-30 minutes. you can just stick them in the same oven as the beets when the beets reach the 30 minute mark

9. remove the beets from the foil and let cool

10. when the beets are cool enough to handle slip their skins off and slice into thin rounds

11. arrange the beets on a platter

12. crush the roasted garlic and toss with the roasted carrots and sweet potato

13. top the beets with the roasted carrot/sweet potato/garlic mixture

14. garnish the dish with avocados if you like

15. spoon the dressing on top

for the dressing:

1. in a food processor, combine all the ingredient minus the cucumbers

2. when blended, salt to taste and then add the cucumbers

3. you can make the dressing in advance and keep it in the refrigerator until ready to use