This recipe for Chioggia Beet Salad is another shared with our Food Channel audience by Chef Kyle Beausoleil of Michael Jordan’s Steak House, located in the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut.
Chioggia beets are beautiful, with a pink-fuschia-red color, often resembling the stripes in a candy cane when they’re cut. It has its origins in Italy, coming from the coastal town of Chioggia which is very close to Venice.
Chef Beausoleil’s recipe is made with speck (pork fat with or without meat), goat cheese crema and artisanal lettuce, topped with a hazelnut vinaigrette.
Ingredients
Beets
- 3 pounds Chioggia beets
Hazelnut Vinaigrette Ingredients
- 1 orange, juiced
- 1 tablespoon champagne vinegar
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 2 teaspoons shallots, minced
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1/2 tablespoon hazelnuts, chopped
- 1/2 cup blended oil
- 1 teaspoon parsley, chopped
Goat Cheese Crème Ingredients
- 8 ounces Goat cheese
- 4 ounces Crème Fraiche (may substitute with 3 ounces sour cream)
Salad Construction (1 serving)
- 4 ounces baby Artisanal lettuce blend
- 4 tablespoons Hazelnut vinaigrette
- 2 ounces Chioggia beets
- 1 tablespoon Goat cheese crema
- 1 tablespoon chopped hazelnuts
- 1 thinly sliced piece of speck (may sub with prosciutto)
Preparation
Chioggia Beets Method
- 1 Roast beets at 350°F for two hours depending on size. You should be able to poke them with a fork and have no resistence.
- 2 Wait for beets to be cool enough to touch and peel the skins while they are still warm with a towel.
Hazelnut Vinaigrette Method
- 1 In a blender add juice, vinegar, shallots, zest, mustard and honey.
- 2 Turn the blender on and begin to slowly add blended oil.
- 3 Once the blended oil is added, add hazelnut oil, hazelnuts and chopped parsley.
- 4 Keep mixing for about 30 more seconds, you should still see pieces of chopped hazelnuts.
Goat Cheese Method
- 1 Combine ingredients until smooth.
Final Plating
- 1 Toss lettuce with some vinaigrette, roll the bottom of the lettuce leaves with speck.
- 2 In a separate bowl toss the beets with some vinaigrette.
- 3 Smear goat cheese across crema on the bottom of the plate .
- 4 Mound beets toward the back of the plate and rest the lettuce flower gently atop the beets.
- 5 Finish with chopped hazelnuts.
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