Roasted Beets with Goat Cheese and Pomegranate Dressing

Sometimes, I think my subconscious knows things before the rest of my body does. Like this past Monday, when I had a sudden desire to start cooking like a crazy person, I should have known that something was up. Why else would I have a sudden desire to make enough food for three dinners all at once?

Well it turns out that the subtle message from my subconscious was notice that I was about to be laid low in a big way by the big bad flu. Yep, for the bast two days I’ve had all the classic symptoms and it’s been awful. The weather, which has been absolutely miserable, has been no help, since I’m not sure if I’m shivering because it’s 58 degrees in the house, or because my fever is back. Ah, the joys of illness.

Okay, so back to the food. It turns out that need to cook like a crazy person was a total lifesaver. Because the beets that I roasted and started marinating on Monday afternoon made a fantastic dinner on Wednesday night when Noel and I were supposed to be going to the Mobbies party, but were instead laid up with this horrible virus. And for me, beets marinated in antioxidant rich pomegranate juice seemed to be about the best flu fighter that we could get. Unless my subconscious would have been smart enough to convince me to make chicken noodle soup. Maybe next time.

Roasted Beets with Goat Cheese and Pomegranate Dressing
Adapted from Diane Phillips’ Slow Cooker The Best Cookbook Ever (my new favorite cookbook for the fall!)

I love the idea of using the crockpot to slow roast vegetables like beets. This recipe uses the crockpot in a totally unconventional way–there’s no liquid and you wrap the beets in foil, just like you would in the oven. In fact, it’s the unconventional recipes in this book–instead of having crockpot specific recipes, it has recipes for things you would normally cook on the stovetop or in the oven done in the crockpot–that makes me love it so much. As always, I made some adaptations to this recipe to use what I had on hand, and I halved the amount of liquid called for in dressing, since it seemed like way too much for the relatively small beets that I had. Feel free to adjust the liquid to cover your own beets!

Ingredients:

• 6 to 8 medium beets, scrubbed, stem ends trimmed
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup pomegranate juice
• 1/8 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon finely ground pepper
• crumbled goat cheese (we love the goat cheese from Firefly Farms)

Directions:

Wrap each beet individually in aluminum foil and arrange in the insert of a 5 to 7 quart crockpot. Cover and cook on high for 5 hours, until the tip of a knife inserted into the thickest part of the beet goes in without any resistance.

Remove the beets from the crockpot and allow them to cool. Unwrap the beets and slip the skins off with a sharp paring knife.

Cut the beets into wedges and transfer to a bowl (preferably with a lid). Whisk together the oil, pomegranate juice, vinegar, shallots, sugar, salt, and pepper in a mixing bowl. Pour the mixture over the beets and toss to coat.

Marinate the beets, covered in the fridge, for at least 2 hours or up to 3 days.

Remove the beets from the liquid with a slotted spoon. Serve alone, sprinkled with goat cheese, or over a salad (we had ours with baby arugula and it was really nice) sprinkled with goat cheese. If serving with a salad, spoon the liquid over the salad as a salad dressing.

Enjoy that antioxidant boost! And if you’re sick hope it helps you get better sooner!

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