The Ubiquitous Roasted Beet Salad

Thirty-five years into the farm-to-fork movement every professional chef and home cook has their version of a roasted beet salad.

For me, I get a thorough kick in the pants out of knowing my family descends from an area of northern Italy that has a small town named Chioggia. Those of you that know heirloom vegetables, and beets in particular, will quickly recognize the name as it’s associated with that candy striped beet with the same name. The beet with the name no one really knows how to pronounce. It’s like this: key-oh-ja.

With beets basically in my DNA, I have grown to like them any way they can be prepared. But roasting has got to be my all-time favorite way to eat them, especially when the beets get a little bigger and are still very earthy and sweet. These cannabis roasted beets are no different — super sweet, herbaceous, earthy, and palette pleasing.

For this particular recipe, I chose heirloom Bull’s Blood beets to meld with the piquant cannabis while slow roasting. A rare variety, the Bull’s Blood beet has a higher nutritional value than any other beet out there. An older heirloom cultivar, Bull’s Blood is known for its natural sweetness, remarkably earthy flavor, and as an excellent source of antibiotics, minerals, and vitamins. They are also known to contain betaine, a compound essential for good cardiovascular health. And let’s not forget those gorgeous deep red leaves that are just as delicious and nutritious as their underground counterparts. This old-school variety name hints to its mid-nineteenth-century origins when beets were known as blood turnips circa 1840.

Making a beet salad with such an historic and rare beet doesn’t call for a normal orange now, does it? No. Loaded with lycopene and complex flavors, I chose the Cara Cara orange, discovered at the Hacienda Cara Cara in Valencia, Venezuela in 1976. This super sweet, slightly tangy, low acid citrus is the perfect match for the earthy beets. Crispy fried garden grown herbs, lemonade vinaigrette, and wild fennel pollen that I foraged along the Columbia River are also complementary accompaniments. The wild fennel pollen is also terpene rich, loaded with limonene and alpha pinene, giving you more reason to add this great salad to your roughage repertoire and a wonderful opportunity to get outside and to forage or garden for a few of the ingredients utilized in your kitchen.

Recipe: Cannabis Roasted Beets, Cara Cara Oranges, Fried Garden Herbs + Limonene Lemonade

_{Cannabis Roasted Beets, Cara Cara Oranges, + Fried Garden Herbs}

PREP TIME: 15 minutes
ROASTING TIME: 1 hour
YIELD: 4 individual salads or 1 family style salad
STATUS: Vegetarian
TOTAL THC/CBD: Depends on potency of products used

EQUIPMENT NEEDED

• Small baking dish
• Chef’s knife
• Cutting board
• Whisk
• 2 small stainless-steel mixing bowls
• Medium stainless-steel mixing bowl
• Small sauté pan
• Large spoon
• Rasp
• Serving plates or platter

INGREDIENTS

• 4-6 whole roasted heirloom beets (the size of a baseball)
• ½ oz. quality cannabis buds
• ¼ cup cannabis infused grape seed oil
• Salt + pepper to taste
• 3 Cara Cara oranges (peeled, cut into segments)
• ¼ cup very young wild chickweed
• ¼ tsp. wild fennel pollen
• 1 tsp. fresh cracked pepper
• 2 tsp. Jacobsen salt co. sea salt flakes
• ¼ cup sour cream
• 1 Tbsp. fresh grated horseradish

Vinaigrette

• 3 Tbsp. cannabis-infused grape seed oil
• 1 Tbsp. fresh squeezed orange juice
• 2 Tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1 drop True Terpenes limonene
• 1 Tbsp. cannabis rice wine vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. wildflower honey
• Pinch of salt + pepper

Fried herbs

• 1 Tbsp. fresh rosemary leaves
• 1 Tbsp. fresh tiny sage leaves
• 1 Tbsp. fresh parsley leaves
• 1 Tbsp. fresh thyme leaves
• 1 Tbsp. fresh cilantro leaves
• 15 thin slices of fresh jalapeño
• ¼ cup vegetable oil

INSTRUCTIONS

For the beets

Preheat an oven to 400°F. Wrap the oil-drizzled, salt- and pepper-sprinkled beets and cannabis buds in foil packets. Seal up nicely. Place the bundles on a baking sheet. Roast in a 400°F oven for about an hour. When cool, use a paper towel to rub off the beet skins (dry and keep the purple buds for another application). Slice the beets into large thin rounds. Place in a big casserole dish and drizzle the slices with a couple of tablespoons of the vinaigrette to marinade for 15-20 minutes before serving.

For the vinaigrette

In a small stainless-steel mixing bowl with a whisk, combine the oil, lemon juice, rice wine vinegar, terpenes, honey, and the salt and pepper. Whisk until combined well, then add the oil and stir well. Refrigerate until ready to use.

For the horseradish crème

In a small stainless-steel mixing bowl with a whisk, mix the sour cream and the horseradish until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.

For the fried herbs

Heat the ¼ cup of oil in a small saucepan, in batches fry the herbs until they are crispy. Set aside on a paper towel to drain until ready to use.

To assemble the salad

Arrange the marinades beets on your desired serving plates or platter. Drizzle the remaining dressing over the beets. Arrange the orange segments over the beets. Sprinkle with sea salt flakes + pepper. Sprinkle the fried herbs over the beets. Drizzle or dot the beets with horseradish crème. Arrange a few leaves of wild chickweed on the beets. Sprinkle with a pinch of wild foraged fennel pollen. Serve.

More cannabis-infused recipes from Chef Carosi: