Japanese Style Beet Salad with Ginger-Citrus Vinaigerette

Here is another recipe where nothing goes to waste.  Most people don't know, but you can cook with the entire beet.  That means the bulb, the beet leaves and the beet stalks.  And by using all parts of the veggie, you get a variety of textures with just one plant.  Although, I did throw in raw baby spinach to have a raw aspect to the salad, since everything else was cooked.

So what makes this a "Japanese" style salad?  The dressing of course!  The ginger-citrus vinaigrette has raw almonds, fresh orange juice and fresh grapefruit juice, a healthy amount of ginger, rice wine vinegar and mirin.  I paired this salad with a Teriyaki "Steak" with a simple soba noodle salad.

Japanese Style Beet Salad

You could have this as a warm salad, on top of cool baby spinach, but I had time to let the cooked beet and sauteed beet leaves and stalks to cool in the fridge.

If you don't have raw cashews, just make the dressing, omitting that ingredient.  The cashews were just meant to give it creaminess.






Ingredients (yields 3-4 servings)
2 beet bulbs
beet leaves and stalks from the beets chopped
1 c baby spinach
sesame oil
evoo
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp minced ginger
1/2 grapefruit juiced
1/2 orange juiced
1/2 raw cashews soaked at least 1 hrs

Directions
Preheat oven 375.  Wash bulbs, oil and wrap in foil.  Cook for about 45 min- 1 hr.  In meantime, wash beet leaves and stalks and dry.  Heat sesame oil in saute pan.  Saute the chopped stalks for about 5 min, then add in leaves.  Saute until greens have wilted (about 2-3 min).  Remove, transfer to plate and cool in fridge.
For dressing, take 1 tbsp evoo and the remaining ingredients (except spinach and blend until smooth.
Once beet is cooked, remove foil, peel and slice (use gloves because your hands will stain!).  Cool to room temp and start forming the salad.  Toss dressing with spinach, top with sauted greens and stems, and then beets.  Pour dressing over and throw on some more raw cashews (optional).
Place