By Amy Andrews
Beets and oranges pair beautifully both in color and flavor. For this salad, I like to cook the beets sous vide because preparation is quick and relatively mess free. Whatever your preparation, if your fingers get stained from peeling the beets, use baking soda and rub your fingers under running water.
SERVES 4
6 beets, yellow, red, or a mix (cooked by one of the methods below)
½ cup toasted hazelnuts (toasted as below)
Crème Fraîche Dressing (see recipe below)
1 fennel bulb, sliced, with fronds reserved for garnish
2 oranges, knife-peeled and sliced into rounds
Flake salt
To Cook the Beets
For sous vide: Trim off the roots and greens, wash and peel the beets. Place the beets in a sous vide bag (I kept the yellow beets separate from the red by using two bags) and drizzle in a tablespoon of olive oil and a teaspoon of wine vinegar. To make a sous vide bag, use FoodSaver vacuum bags, Zip-lock freezer bags, or silicone Stasher bags—just keep in mind that the bag’s color will never be the same after you cook red beets in it. Cook to 185°, which takes about 2 hours for 2-inch beets. Remove from water bath and let cool. Refrigerate until you are ready to make the salad.
For oven roast: Preheat oven to 375°F. Cut off beet greens, leaving 1-inch stems; leave root intact. Scrub clean with water and place in a glass baking dish. Add water to about ¼ inch, cover tightly with foil, and bake for about 45 minutes, until beets are fork-tender. When cool enough to handle, peel then slice into rounds or cut pole-topole into 8 wedges (or cut some of each).
To Toast the Hazelnuts
Preheat oven to 350°. Put hazelnuts on a rimmed sheet pan or pie plate and bake until they’re fragrant and their skins darken and begin to blister, about 5–10 minutes. Transfer to a clean “working” kitchen towel (the skins will stain) and rub with your hands to remove some of the skins. Set aside to cool completely. (You may not use all of these; keep the remaining hazelnuts in a jar at room temperature and enjoy them throughout the week.)
Crème Fraîche Dressing
2 tablespoons crème fraîche
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Stir together in a small jar.
Dressing recipe adapted from William Werner of Craftsman and Wolves in San Francisco.
To Make the Salad
Arrange on a platter or plate with fennel bulb slices on the bottom, followed by beets, oranges, hazelnuts, and fennel fronds. Drizzle with crème fraîche dressing and sprinkle with flake salt.
