Make It : Ironman Salad (a.k.a. Roasted Beet Salad)
This salad is packed with iron, calcium, vitamin C, fiber, everything you’d want for a training regimin. This is another great place to use pre-roasted beets. As with most salad mixes, add whatever you’d like or what you have in your fridge - this is just a suggestion to build off of.
You’ll need:
2 medium beets with greens (and extra greens, if you have them leftover from other cooking adventures. Also, if you can find them, combine red and yellow beets for color variation)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 small yellow or red onion, chopped (red has extra bite to it, if you enjoy it)
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1-2 cups spinach
Feta cheese
Dried cranberries
Shredded carrots
Your favorite vinegarette or dressing
Slice the greens off the beet roots, set aside.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. On a large roasting pan covered with foil, roast the beets for 40-70 minutes, or until smooth when poked with a fork. Remove from the oven and allow to cool, then peel and cut into small chunks.
Rinse and pat dry the spinach and beet greens. Roughly chop or rip into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.
In a small frying pan, combine the onions and balsamic vinegar. Cook over medium heat until the onions begin to carmalize (this is easy to do ahead of time in large batches, then store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks). Set the onions aside and take the pan off the heat. Immediately add the greens and allow to wilt in the warm pan.
Combine the greens, onions, beets, cranberries, carrots, and whatever else you’d like. Toss with the dressing and enjoy with a large glass of milk.
Makes 2-3 servings salad