Blood Orange & Beet Salad – a bright and fresh salad with roasted beets, blood orange segments, feta and a homemade blood orange mint vinaigrette. A wonderful winter citrus salad for dinner parties or healthy lunches!
Lately, my eating habits have consisted mainly of carbs. Pizza, pasta, more pizza, more pasta, it feels as if that is all I have been eating. Not that there is anything wrong with that necessarily, and I am certainly not complaining as it has all been delicious. But I am in some serious need of some greens, and it’s really time I start making more of an effort to eat more healthily on the regular.
If I am going to eat healthy, it needs to be interesting. Otherwise, it just doesn’t work for me. No boring salads in this household!
I love a good beet salad. In fact, I made a beet salad last winter as well, and it also had a citrus vinaigrette. So why another beet salad now? Well, I love to play around with my food.In the recipe I’ve used my favourite winter citrus, the blood orange, in two different ways. Not only is it cut into segments, but the juice is used in the vinaigrette too. Double the blood orange love!
My favourite leafy green, spinach, is also used in this salad. The spinach works well with the beets and blood oranges, not overwhelming the taste of either. Plus, I love the added nutrients spinach gives over some other leafy greens.
Of course, I almost always require cheese in my salad. Most often when it comes to beet salads, you will see goat cheese being used. I do love that pairing, and they go well together. However, I had some feta in my fridge and decided to try that for something a bit different. The saltiness of the feta adds another element to the flavour profile of the salad that is quite nice.
After tossing the salad ingredients together, the blood orange mint vinaigrette is truly what brings it all together and for me is the star of the whole recipe. I would probably make this vinaigrette just on its own to go with other simple salads even! I just love the combination of citrus and mint!
Don’t be afraid of making your own salad dressing! It’s honestly often the simplest thing, and I almost always prefer it over anything I have bought from a store shelf. Freshly squeezed blood orange is blended together with apple cider vinegar, olive oil, shallot, honey and fresh mint leaves – it couldn’t be any easier to throw together.
This recipe does make quite a bit of salad, so it could be great for a dinner party as a side. You could also enjoy it as a meal if you have larger serving sizes, or pack it as a weekday lunch (just wait to add the dressing until you are ready to eat).
While winter does tend to make me choose heavy comfort foods more often, it’s hard to resist a bright and fresh salad like this one, especially when it uses in season produce. I’ll find myself reaching for it, content that I am making a healthy choice for myself without giving up on flavour. Try it for yourself while blood oranges are in season and still available!
If you make this blood orange & beet salad please let me know! You can leave a comment below, rate it, post on the Zest & Simmer Facebook page or share photos on Instagram using the hashtag #zestandsimmer. I’d love to see it and I am always thrilled to hear from you!
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Blood Orange & Beet Salad
Ingredients
- 8 cups spinach
- 2 blood oranges , cut into segments
- 2 beets , roasted and sliced
- 1 cup feta , cubed
For the Blood Orange Mint Vinaigrette:
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 blood orange , juiced
- 1/2 shallot
- 2 tsp honey
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 10 mint leaves
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- In a large salad bowl, toss together spinach, blood orange segments, beets and feta.
- In a blender add all ingredients for the vinaigrette. Blend together 20-30 seconds, until mixture is smooth. Before serving, pour vinaigrette over salad and toss to coat. Enjoy!
This is my kinda salad! And this one is definitely far from boring! Love the beets, the feta, the blood orange – everything! It would make for a lovely side dish with dinner tonight 🙂 Pinned!
Thank you so much for your kind words Dawn! 💕
Spinach is my favourite too, and I eat so much of it in the run of a week! Love beets and feta in salad, and the addition of blood oranges is a lovely touch!
Thank you Leanne!
A perfect salad for this time of year when blood oranges are available and winter beets need a little love! Pinned!
Thank you Elaine!
Such a great combination, love the flavors is blood oranges and beets together and it’s pretty too.
Thank you so much Kristen!