Wood Fired Beet Salad with Avocado-Citrus Vinaigrette
Simply Delicious ~ Wood Fired Infused Smoked Beets easily prepared on your grill. Finish the Salad with Petite Greens and a Zesty Avocado-Citrus Vinaigrette.
Ingredients
Instructions
A simple salad, I have added step-by step how- tos.
Overview:
Steam beets, peel, slice into wedges.
Smoke on a aluminum tray you make, poked with holes.
Add soaked wood chips under the grill grates.
Smoke the beets 15 minutes.
Toss with vinaigrette, top with petite salad greens.
Make Avocado- Citrus Vinaigrette, set aside.
Prepare Beets:
Cut off tops of beets, reserve the greens for cooking in another recipe.
Place beets in a pot to hold, cover with cool water.
Bring to a boil, then turn down to a medium simmer. Cook until the beets are tender
and cooked. Test with a small knife. Large beets should be done in 45 minutes.
(These beets are then going on the grill, so slightly undercooking them is preferable.)
Cool beets a few minutes in the sink, remove peel with a paper towel, the skins should slide off easily.
(Red beets can stain your hands.)
Cut the beets in half, then each half into 4 wedges; yielding 8 wedges per beet.
Keep golden and ruby beets separate – the ruby ones will stain the golden ones!
Make a “grill tray”:
Use “heavy” aluminum foil, fold a large sheet in half to make a 12″ x 18″ rectangle.
Raise all the edges to form a 1″ lip all around, so the beets don’t escape.
Puncture holes all over with a skewer- to allow the wood fire to infuse the beets.
Please this aluminum grill tray on a metal cookie sheet to hold.
Brush with 1 t. of neutral oil.
Top with beets; golden on one side, ruby on the other in single layers.
Sprinkle with sea salt all over.
Drain smoking chips, add to a V shaped smoking box** and place under the grates of
your gas grill. Set heat to high and let warm up.
Will start to smoke in 15 minutes. Add tray of beets on top of the grates, close and smoke
for 15 minutes. The beets will get slightly dark and crispy on the bottom.
Turn off the heat, close grill and let the wood chips infuse the beets for 10 more minutes.
Take the tray inside.
Serve Salad:
Add beets to a platter – either mixed colors, or golden on one side, ruby on the other.
Drizzle all over with Avocado-Citrus Vinaigrette (will have some remaining.)
Top the beets with a ball of Petite Salad Greens. Drizzle with the Vinaigrette.
Garnish with edible flowers if desired.
**Smoking Chips for a barbecue (found in hardware and specialty shops) are soaked in water and placed in a V- metal smoking box, and tucked under the grates of the grill to smoke. (Don’t have one? I found mine at Home Depot… Simply make a packet out of layers of heavy foil, puncture all over and fill with soaked wood chips.)
See BLOG for more photos.
* with concerns about gmo’s and processing of oils, use a vegetable oil which has not been chemically treated, this is called “expeller pressed”.
This recipe may not be reproduced without the consent of its author, Karen Sheer.
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