Roasted Beet Kale Salad

Sweet, earthy roasted beets are the star of this vegan kale salad with feta, apple, hazelnuts, pomegranate and a simple balsamic vinaigrette. Add your favorite protein for a healthy weeknight dinner or serve as a colorful side dish.

Roasted beets are one of my all-time favorite salad ingredients. Funny enough, I don't love them on their own, but they add so much to a salad. Perfectly roasted beets should be slightly caramelized, sweet, earthy and tender.

They're the perfect pair for verdant greens and a simple balsamic vinaigrette. We also like to dress up our roasted beet salad with a few extra ingredients, including vegan (or regular) feta. It adds a salty tang that contrasts perfectly with the sweet beets!

Add in some crunchy, savory toasted hazelnuts, sweet, tart pomegranate arils and some crisp apple slices and you're good to go. Basically fall in a bowl!

Instructions

I don't often crave salads, but a perfectly balanced salad can be surprisingly delicious. In my opinion, all good salads need a little bit of everything. That means varying textures, freshness, and a little bit of tang, saltiness and sweetness.

The key to a good salad lies in the dressing. A simple vinaigrette can transform even the humblest leafy green.

Vinaigrette ingredients

• Oil is absolutely essential. Most vinaigrettes call for olive oil (including this one), but feel free to switch it up depending on the flavor profile. Other options include sesame oil, avocado oil, sunflower oil, etc.
• For every 3 parts of oil, you'll need 1 part vinegar. (Hence vinaigrette!) Balsamic is our go-to with beets. Other good options include red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar, champagne vinegar, rice wine vinegar and more.
• Salt and sugar. Salt and a touch of sugar (in the form of honey, agave, maple syrup, etc) make for a perfectly balanced vinaigrette.
• Other flavorings: to add more flavor to your vinaigrette, consider lemon (or another citrus) juice, fresh or dried herbs, or mustard, which aids the emulsification process.

Make sure to whisk your vinaigrette well before tossing with your salad ingredients so it doesn't separate.

My favorite trick: add all of the vinaigrette ingredients to a Mason jar, seal tightly and give it a good shake. Much easier than whisking!

How to roast beets

Once you decide on your vinaigrette base, it's time to roast the beets. We like using a mix of regular red beets and golden beets. Golden (or yellow) beets are a bit milder than red beets. I actually prefer them to red beets, and they don't stain your hands!

Whichever variety of beets you choose, start by washing them well, then peeling and slicing into wedges. If you'd prefer to dice them, that's fine, too. I prefer wedges for roasting because there's more surface area for browning and caramelization. In other words, more flavor!

Toss the beet wedges in a tablespoon or two of olive oil and a generous pinch of salt before roasting. To prevent the colors from bleeding, we toss the different colored beets in separate bowls. We also separate them on the sheet pan. Not necessary - just an aesthetic preference.

In this recipe, we add a few more ingredients before roasting to add extra flavor. A splash of balsamic, freshly cracked black pepper and a few sprigs of thyme go a long way! Feel free to stick with the olive oil + salt if you'd like to simplify.

Crank up the heat in your oven to 375-400˚ and let them get tender and slightly caramelized. It's best to stir them once during cook time to allow even cooking. When you can easily pierce the roasted beets with a fork, they're good to go!

Other ingredients

In the case of this salad, we opt for something salty, crunchy, sweet and refreshing. Feta, toasted hazelnuts, pomegranate arils and apple hit all of those notes for a perfectly balanced vegan salad!

Baby kale makes for a great base for the vegan beet salad ingredients. Feel free to swap with spinach if you'd prefer. Arugula is another great option, as is regular kale or a tender leafy green like bibb lettuce.

If you're not vegan or dairy free, feel free to use regular feta. We use this vegan variety, which is by far the best we've tried. It's not quite as salty and tangy as the real thing, but it's a pretty dang good stand-in! Goat cheese or shaved parmesan are also excellent alternatives.

If you want to switch up the salad ingredients, try the following combinations:

• Roasted beet + cucumber + feta + avocado
• Roasted beet + strawberry + balsamic
• Roasted beet + pear + toasted walnuts
• Roasted beet + shaved fennel + avocado + parmesan

What's your favorite roasted beet salad combination? Let us know in the comments below!

More favorite vegan salads:

Salads don't have to be boring and bland. Take your salad game up a notch with these flavorful and healthy vegan salad recipes:

• Vegan Mediterranean Chickpea Salad. This is my all-time favorite salad recipe. It doesn't actually contain any greens, but it's SO flavorful, delicious and easy to customize with various ingredients. My husband (a proclaimed salad-hater) loves it, too!
• Moroccan Carrot and Lentil Salad. Continuing on the lettuce-less salad train, this legume-forward salad is incredibly flavorful and packs well for the next day's lunch.
• Kale Tahini Caesar Salad with Crispy Chickpeas. I know I said the mediterranean chickpea salad is my favorite, but I kinda forgot about this one. So. freakin'. good.
• Vegan Cobb Salad. Decked out with all the goods, including eggplant "bacon", vegan ranch dressing, corn, tomatoes and chickpeas.
• Grilled Romaine with Vegan Ranch. Once you try grilled romaine, you'll never go back. Sounds weird, I know, but you won't regret giving it a try.

If you give this vegan roasted beet kale salad recipe a try, we’d love for you to leave a rating and review below! We also love to see your creations on Instagram – tag us at @crowded_kitchen so we can see what you’ve been cooking.

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