A heart-shaped beet salad perfect for Valentine's Day.

Beets make our hearts beat! The sweet, tender beet is such a wonderful topping for a salad. By cutting the beets with a heart shaped cookie cutter, it brought this salad to another level of Valentine sweetness. We also roasted brussels sprouts with pecans to give the salad a warm nutty flavor, and along the tang of fresh goat cheese, this salad is sure to be a favorite.  And try the mustard vinaigrette again on another salad- we were very proud on how wonderful this dressing came out.  Enjoy!
 
What you'll need:
 
 5 Large Beets
3 cups Brussels sprouts
½ cup whole half pecans
Mixed Greens of frisee and red lead lettuce
1 log of goat cheese
Olive oil
Salt
 
Home Made Mustard Vinaigrette
 
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup vinegar
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
2 tablespoons minced shallots
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
juice of 1/2 of a lemon
 
Pre-heat the oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with tin foil. Cut off the greens of the beets and peel the outer skin.




Slice the beets in ¼ inch think rounds.  Place the beets in a bowl and lightly drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, toss. Place the sliced beets on the foil and cook for 15-20 minutes, until a fork slides easily though the beet.  Remove from the oven and let cool.





While the beets are cooking, slice the butt end of each brussels sprout and toss into a bowl. Keep all the excess leafs that peel off during this process, toss in the bowl.



Slice the half pecans in half-length wise.

Toss into bowl with brussels sprouts. Drizzle lightly with oil and salt. Pour the brussels sprout pecans mixture onto a cookie sheet. Once you pull the beets, put the brussels sprouts into the oven for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until a fork slides easily through. Remove from oven and set aside.
 
In a mason jar add all the ingredients for the vinaigrette:

Olive oil
Vinegar
Mustard
Shallots
Salt
Lemon
 
Shake well, until all the ingredients are well combined.

Once the beets are cool to the touch, gently remove from the foil and place on a cutting board. With your heart shaped cookie cutter in the center of a slice beet, press down gently, and voila! A heart shaped beet.



Repeat this process with the remaining beets, removing the excess beet from around the cookie cutter, as you cut out the hearts (we couldn’t help but to snack on the tid-bits!).

In a large bowl, place the salad greens. Edge the greens with the brussels pecan mixture around the bowl circumference.

Remove the goat cheese from the refrigerator and with a sharp knife, slice ½ inch thick rounds, gently placing in the center of the salad greens. Lay the beet hearts on top of the goat cheese rounds. The white of the goat cheese highlights the shape of beets.

Dress if you are going to serve immediately, or let each guess dress their salad individually.
May your loved ones heart beet when they eat this salad!

Kathryn and Dash, the women behind the Yankee Crafty B*tch blog, bring you the best in the world of crafts, food, sewing and gardens — all on the resourceful Yankee budget. So kick back, check out their posts, and get your craft on.

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