Baby Beet Salad With Goat Cheese and Toasted Walnuts

Ingredients

8 baby yellow beets (about 1 1/2 inches in diameter)

8 baby red beets (about 1 1/2 inches in diameter)

8 baby Chioggia beets (about 1 1/2 inches in diameter)

Kosher salt or rock salt to cover pan

2 tablespoons sugar

sea salt

3 tablespoons sherry vinegar

freshly ground black pepper

6 tablespoons walnut oil

4 ounces goat cheese

4 ounces market greens (whatever is available at the farmers market: curly cress, ancho 1 1/2 ounces toasted walnuts

1 tablespoon chopped chives

Preparation

Cut greens off beets and wash well. Use a baking pan large enough to hold all the beets in a single layer. Put 1/2 inch of kosher salt or rock salt down first, then place beets on top of salt. Bake in a 350-degree oven for about 45 minutes or until you can push a toothpick through the beet with little resistance. Remove from oven and allow to cool enough to handle with your bare hands.

Meanwhile, make vinaigrette by mixing sugar, salt and vinegar until ingredients have dissolved. Then add pepper and walnut oil. Mix well and divide into three bowls before vinegar and oil have a chance to separate.

Peel beets and cut in half. Add each type of beet to its own bowl of vinaigrette and marinate separately for at least 2 hours. Overnight is even better.

Divide goat cheese into four (1-ounce) portions.

To serve, place beets in a circle on plate in alternating colors (4 halves of each beet per plate). In another bowl, drizzle greens with some of the same vinaigrette used to marinate the beets. Season with salt and pepper and toss well. Divide greens among four plates, placing greens in center of beets. Top each plate with a piece of goat cheese and sprinkle with toasted walnuts and chopped chives.