In a little over 2 weeks I’ll be off celebrating my friend Catherine’s last days of single life. Her bachelorette party is in Austin and I couldn’t be any more pumped about spending time with my closest girlfriends. I’ve never been to Texas and I hear that Austin is super fun. Just wondering, is there any Texas fare that I shouldn’t pass up? Despite all the excitement, I am slightly worried (borderline nauseous) about fitting into dresses, rompers and…*shutter*…bathing suits. It’s basically winter 9+ months out of the year here in Chicago so I can get away with things like capes. But…not so much in TX.
Enter salads!
This Roasted Beet and Blackberry Spinach Salad does have a small amount of bacon and a tiny sprinkling of cheese…but we need something to make the baby spinach taste good, right? Plus, there is a lot of good stuff going into this salad: blackberries, beets, spinach, raw nuts. Gosh I love beets! All the ingredients came together perfectly to make a yummy salad and the dressing is one I’d make over and over for other salads.
Here’s what you’ll need
Prep the vinaigrette. That was easy!
Toss all the salad ingredients together then drizzle vinaigrette on top.
- 4 cups baby spinach
- 3 beets, roasted, cooled and thinly sliced
- 3 slices of bacon, cooked until crisp then roughly chopped
- ¼ red onion, finely diced
- ¼ cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
- ¼ cup pecans, roughly chopped
- handful blackberries
- 3 tablespoons fruity jam (we used rhubarb-raspberry-cherry jam)
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 3 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
- Toss together all the salad ingredients in a large bowl.
- Prepare the vinaigrette next. Whisk together jam, rice vinegar and white balsamic vinegar in a small bowl or jar until the jam has broken up. Pour in olive oil and continue whisking until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Drizzle the salad with vinaigrette and serve immediately.
