Some of you may know this, some of you may not, but I LOVE beets. Seriously, I love them. They may just be on my top ten list of foods (like pure foods, not dishes…a girl’s gotta keep these things separate, you know?).

Anyway, beets and salad were pretty much made to be together, at least I think so. If you haven’t tried beets in salad, or (GASP) at all, you should. Like, NOW.

The dressing for this salad is dill. It tastes like DILL. If you do not like dill, or if you just aren’t in the mood (sometimes I get tired of it), I strongly suggest switching out the dressing, as it will be one of the strongest flavors. A nice balsamic vinaigrette will do just fine.

Alright, enough preamble…here we go!

Ingredients

Salad
arugula
blueberry
red onion
goats cheese
beets (about 2 or 3 is good)

Chicken
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 bay leaves
lemon juice

Dressing
fresh dill
dijon mustard
olive oil
lemon juice
salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

Beets
1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Wash the beets and remove the greens (you can keep these and use them in something else if you like).
3. Wrap the beets in foil and place on a pan.
4.  Roast until tender. This can be anywhere from half an hour to an hour, depending on the size.
5. Once the beets are cooked, remove from the oven and allow to cool. Rub with your fingers to remove the peel (Note: the beets will stain your fingers, your counters, and anything else they come into contact with, I always use a cutting board and have a sink full of water).
6. When you are ready to add them to the salad simply slice as desired.

Chicken
1. Preheat oven to 425F (Note: you can also cook the beets at this temperature, if you want to cook them both at the same time, 375F is just ideal).
2. Place each of your chicken breasts into a foil pouch with a bay leaf and a little lemon juice.
3. Seal the foil packets well, this will hold in the steam which will cook your chicken and keep it moist and tender.
4. Cook 15-25 min., or until internal temp. reaches 160 degrees.

Dressing
1. In a small blender or food processor (I use a magic bullet), blend some fresh dill, a teaspoon of dijon (I use a homemade variety from Janie and Pamalama’s, a local catering company), a couple of glugs of olive oil and a few tablespoons of lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to your taste. I don’t like to make more dressing than I need for a particular salad, so this only makes a small amount.

Salad

Combine about 2 cups of arugula with about a quarter of a red onion (diced), a good handful of blueberries, and some goat cheese. Top with sliced beets, and then sliced chicken. Drizzle dressing over top.

Don’t be discouraged by the seemingly many steps involved in this meal. It’s really a lot of “put in oven and leave for awhile”. The actual assembly and making of the dressing takes less than 10 minutes.

Happy Cooking!