Summertime is officially Salad Season. Don’t you agree? Even though I love making soups, stoops & stews, I tend to put them on hold during the hottest months. It’s not so much about the cooking part, it’s about the eating piping hot food part. In summer, I crave that a lot less and prefer foods that are chilled or room temperature. Like this gorgeous, nutrient-dense Beet Salad with Chicken & Arugula.
HOW TO PREPARE BEETS FOR BEET SALAD
I love beets! I love juicing them, having them in borsht, or roasting them ahead of time for my favorite salads. Love them to bits, I tell you, but they can be messy AF (which in this case doesn’t stand for Absolutely Flavorful 😉). After several attempts at curbing the “bloodshed”, which if not contained can make your kitchen look like a crime scene, I’ve figured out the easiest, laziest & foolproof way to deal with these bloody vegs.
- First of all, preheat your oven to 450 F. I know some people think it’s too high, but if you have large beets, that temperature will be just right.
- Wash the beets thoroughly, but don’t brush them vigorously. That would scratch the skin and the juices would run in the oven. You don’t want to lose the precious juices, and you definitely don’t want to have a bloody mess in the oven.
- Take a pan and line it with parchment paper. That will reduce your pan-cleaning time to zero seconds. My favorite number for cleaning time!
- Rub the beets with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle them with Himalayan salt and black pepper.
- In the oven they go for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until you can stick a fork in them with little or no resistance.
- Let them cool off completely before peeling and slicing them for your salad, or… you guessed it, you’ll have a bloody mess (I’m starting to sound British with all these “bloodies” 😂).
Look how clean-cut my beets look after roasting and cooling off. No running juices, no bloody mess. And the beauty of this process is that peeling them will be a cinch. I’ll never understand why some people would even attempt peeling beets before roasting or boiling them. So hard that way! To me, it’s an exercise in futility.
HOW TO PREPARE JUICY & TASTY CHICKEN BREASTS
GAME CHANGER ALERT! I know that sounds totally dramatic, but bear with me, I’m Italian! 💁♀️
CONFESSION: I used to loathe chicken breasts. Not only did I find them bland, dull, and insipid (the polar opposite of Absolutely Flavorful), but I also hated making them. No matter what I did to them (bake, sear, saute, poach, smother…), they would come out tough and chewy. Ugh! And who wants to eat something with the taste and consistency of fresh leather? Nobody, that’s who. So, I stopped buying chicken breasts for a very long time, by far preferring thighs and legs instead. Until a few years ago, when I found a recipe for foolproof tender chicken breasts in the New York Times. I wish I remembered who the author was (my apologies!), but that article changed my chicken game in the kitchen and at the table. You’ll need some discipline for this recipe, but the rewards are great! Make sure you have a timer, self-restraint and some faith.
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS:
- Pound the chicken breasts using a mallet. If you don’t have a mallet, you can use the bottom of a mason jar or cup. You just want to make their thickness as even as possible throughout. My mallet here looks like a prop from the Game Of Thrones set, doesn’t it? Like I’m about to go medieval on these chicken breasts.
- Sprinkle them with Himalayan salt and black pepper.
- Heat a skillet or pan on medium/high and coat the bottom with olive oil (substitute with coconut or avocado oil if you prefer)
- Now comes the precision part. Set the timer to 1 minute and saute the chicken breasts on one side until the alarm goes off. Now flip them over and reset the timer for 1 minute.
- When the alarm goes off, put a lid on and set the timer for 10 minutes. Lower the heat to medium/low and let simmer. DO NOT TOUCH THAT LID! (Sorry, didn’t mean to yell, but the lid is everything).
- When the alarm goes off, turn off the heat and let it rest setting the timer once again for 10 minutes. DO NOT TOUCH THAT LID!
- Once the alarm goes off for the last time, you can slice your chicken breasts and add them to your salad.
AND… ACTION!
Watch how you can easily put your ingredients together for this delicious & nutritious dish. Remember, you can prepare the beets and chicken well ahead of time, even the day before. I actually like to keep roasted beets and seared chicken in the fridge for when I need them in my recipes. So convenient!
TIP for my AIP peeps: if you are currently on a strict autoimmune protocol diet, leave out the black pepper and dollops of goat cheese to make this nutrient-dense salad 100% compliant.
Grab the full recipe with all the steps here below. I hope you’ll try it at home and fall madly in love with it. It’s soooo good & good-for-you!
BEET SALAD WITH CHICKEN & ARUGULA
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts large and seared (see instructions)
- 2 beets large and roasted (see instructions)
- 8 cups arugula
- 1 lemon zest & juice
- 2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
- 2 tbsp crumbled goat cheese optional
- 1 tsp Himalayan salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 5 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
Instructions
ROASTED BEETS
- Preheat your oven to 450 F
- Take a pan and line it with parchment paper
- Wash the beets, rub them with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle them with Himalayan salt and black pepper
- Roast the beets for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until you can stick a fork in them with little or no resistance
- Let them cool off completely before peeling and slicing them for your salad
SEARED CHICKEN BREASTS
- Pound the chicken breasts using a mallet. If you don't have a mallet, you can use the bottom of a mason jar or cup. You just want to make their thickness as even as possible throughout
- Sprinkle them with Himalayan salt and black pepper
- Heat a skillet or pan on medium/high and coat the bottom with olive oil
- Set the timer to 1 minute and saute the chicken breasts on one side until the alarm goes off
- Set the timer to 1 minute and saute the chicken breasts on the other side until the alarm goes off
- When the alarm goes off, put a lid on and set the timer for 10 minutes. Lower the heat to medium/low and let simmer. DO NOT TOUCH THAT LID!
- When the alarm goes off, turn off the heat and let it rest setting the timer once again for 10 minutes. DO NOT TOUCH THAT LID!
- Once the alarm goes off for the last time, you can slice your chicken breasts and add them to your salad.
SALAD & DRESSING
- Combine the lemon juice, zest, remaining olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme leaves in a small bowl to make a vinaigrette
- Toss the arugula with half the dressing
- Make a bed of arugula on a serving plate. Add the roasted beet wedges and chicken slices. Drizzle the rest of the dressing on top of the chicken and beets. Garnish with dollops of goat cheese (optional)
Nutrition
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Great recipe!