Happy New Year!  2016 is going to be the year of great eating.  To start us off right, here is a poached egg and beet salad that I discovered by mistake, but what a fabulous mistake it was!  I tossed together a few things from my refrigerator which came together to create perfection!

My love of beets only goes back a few years, but it is an intense love.  I find beets to be a beautiful food-perfect for the addition to salads, bruschetta, or even to eat on their own.  In my quest to share beets with the world, I served them to some friends while on a girls weekend. Despite their loud protesting, they happily ate their beets (and a kale salad also, although that is a post for another time!).  Although neither of them will admit that they were converted to beet lovers, I know that they were, and the mantra for the rest of the weekend was “beets and kale”!

I made some roasted beets for a Christmas celebration, however there were some left over.  Chopping and combining them with some mixed greens, parmesan cheese and pistachios made a great salad.  Going one step further and adding a poached egg, made the salad perfect!  Poaching eggs is much easier when you use silicone egg poaching cups (I do), but if you don’t have these, the recipe below is for poaching eggs without any special equipment.  The runny yolk creates a great dressing and provides some additional protein.  Here is also a link to help you troubleshoot if you are having difficulty poaching eggs.

I used a simple drizzle of Siracha to complete this salad, but a balsamic glaze would have worked perfectly as well.  Simple, healthy, beautiful, the way all food should be (well, maybe not always the healthy part…)!  Enjoy!

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Poached Egg and Beet Salad

This is a simple, healthy, and beautiful salad, full of antioxidants and protein.

Course Salad

Servings 4 serving

Author Lane Patten

Ingredients

• 4 Small to Medium Beets I use a mixture of red and gold, but you could use all one color,
• 4 Eggs
• 1 Teaspoon White Vinegar
• 4 Cups Mixed Greens
• 4 Tablespoons Pistachios
• Shaved Parmesan
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Siracha or Balsalmic Glaze for Dressing

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425ºF.
2. Drizzle beets with olive oil and wrap with aluminum foil to form a tight foil packet (I place each color in a separate foil packet to keep the colors from bleeding together).
3. Place packets into preheated oven and roast for 1 hour or until fork tender (start checking them at 45 minutes as each oven is slightly different).
4. Cool beets, peel and dice into small bite sized pieces.
5. While beets are roasting in the oven, boil water with 1 teaspoon of vinegar in a medium sized pot.
6. Crack each egg into a separate ramekin or separate small bowl.
7. After water is boiling, turn down to a fast simmer, swirl water and slowly pour in each egg, while water continues to swirl.
8. Simmer for 2-3 minutes or until egg whites are set (you can simmer longer if you like your yolks firmer).
9. (if you are using egg poaching cups, please use the directions that came with them, as you will need to cover your pot and the cooking times will be longer)
10. Remove eggs from water with a slotted spoon and cool on a paper towel lined plate.
11. Place 1 cup of mixed greens into each of 4 bowls.
12. Top each bowl with an equal mixture of the red and gold roasted beets.
13. Add 1 tablespoon of pistachios to each bowl.
14. Top each bowl with a poached egg.
15. Garnish with shaved parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste and your preferred dressing.