Mâche Salad with Roasted Orange Beets, Goat Cheese and a Prickly Pear Dressing

Mâche is a wonderful type of baby lettuce that has a light nutty flavor. The prickly pear dressing is slightly sweet and complements the salad nicely. You can bake the beets and make the dressing ahead of time and combine the ingredients before serving. This recipe will make 4 dinner salads

Ingredients

Beets
3 large organic orange beets, peeled and diced
Non-stick spray
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Dressing
2 prickly pears see How to Peel a Prickly Pear technique if needed
Juice of one lime
1/8 cup of honey
1/8 of white balsamic vinegar
Sprig of mint
Sprinkle of Kosher salt
Salad
1 Р3.5 oz. container of organic m̢che, rinsed and drained
1 – 4 oz. log of fresh organic goat cheese

Technique

For the beets, peel and dice into small pieces. Place onto a cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. Once all beets are arranged onto the sheet, spray again with non-stick spray. Sprinkle with a little bit of kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 25 minutes or until fork tender and beets start to brown.

For dressing, place the prickly pear, lime juice, honey, balsamic vinegar and sprinkle of kosher salt into a blender. Blend until smooth. Transfer to a small pot over medium high heat. Add the sprig of mint and reduce by half. Strain dressing before serving to remove any seeds and the mint sprig. I strained it directly into a small serving dish. Let cool and drizzle over salad once assembled.

To assemble salad, rinse mâche and drain or pat dry. Place a few handfuls on each plate. Sprinkle with beets, and crumble the fresh goat cheese over each serving. Drizzle dressing, and top it all off, with freshly ground pepper.  Alternatively place plates in the fridge to chill, toss greens with dressing, add to chilled plates, add remaining ingredients an serve.