Orange, Beet and Pomegranate Salad with Feta

Last night I was going through my overflowing "recipes to try" file and I came across an orange, beet and pomegranate dish. They sounded like the perfect ingredients to add to a winter salad and coincidentally, I had just roasted some beets. I love when that happens!
This is a very pretty salad loaded with big, bright flavors. If you don't like feta, I imagine goat cheese would also be good or you could just leave the cheese out.




Orange, Beet and Pomegranate Salad with Feta

4 medium beets
2 medium oranges
1/2 of the seeds from a large pomegranate
1/2 small red onion coarsely chopped
1/2 head of Romain lettuce
5 ounces of feta crumbled or cut into desired size
chopped toasted walnuts (optional)

Juice from 1/2 orange
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1/4 cup walnut oil (or olive oil)
salt and pepper to taste


Place beets in a pan with about 3 tablespoons of water and a sprinkling of salt. Cover the pan with foil and roast beets in a 400 oven until they are just tender, about 50 minutes. Once they are cool enough to handle, peel the skins off with you fingers. Cut into bite sized pieces.

For the oranges you have 2 options, you can cut the skins off removing all of the white pith, then slice the oranges 1/2 inch thick and cut the slices into quarters or you can peel the orange, separate the segments and cut the segments into thirds. (this is what I did since I already had roasted beets and was in a hurry)

After you coarsely chop the onions you can place them in a bowl of cold water for a minute or two. This takes away some of the harsh raw onion flavor. If you do this, drain the onions before using and give them a squeeze in a towel.

For the vinaigrette, combine orange juice, rice vinegar, walnut (or olive) oil, and generously season with salt and pepper.

Tear the lettuce into bite size pieces, top with beets, oranges, pomegranate seeds, onions, and feta. Pour vinaigrette on top and toss together. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts if you're using them.