Winter Salad

This is a delicious salad that combines winter produce very nicely (plus avocado).  I have found that it works well to prepare the beets, dressing, and nut combo in advance so that you can pull the salad together in a matter of minutes before a meal. 

Roasted Beets
Wash and trim 3-4 beets and place them in a small baking dish with 1/2 inch of water in the bottom of the dish.  Cover dish well with foil and bake in oven until the largest beet is easily pierced with a fork.  I'd use a 400 oven if cooking the beets alone, but any temperature is fine if you are putting them in an oven with other things.  Allow beets to cool and store in fridge.  You will peel and slice as many as you need when putting the salad together later.

Dressing
Combine a good quality vinegar that is not balsamic (I love tarragon vinegar as well as white wine vinegar for this) with an equal part of olive oil, a big pinch of kosher salt, and freshly ground pepper.  Shake or whisk until well combined.

Nut Combo (love this so much)
Roast 1/3 cup hazelnuts in 350 oven for 12-15 minutes until they smell good. Remove, cool, and chop coarsely.  In a dry skillet, toast 2 tablespoons of sesame seeds on the stove over medium heat.  In a small bowl, combine hazelnuts, sesame seeds, and 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt.

Citrus
Supreme (video tutorial here http://www.vegetariantimes.com/video/how-to-supreme-citrus-fruit/ ) whatever citrus fruit you would like to use. I have used regular oranges, blood oranges, and CaraCara
oranges and all have been delicious.  I am planning to try an orange/grapefruit mix next.

When you are ready to put the salad together, begin by lightly dressing the arugula and placing it on the bottom of your serving dish.  Next layer on peeled, thinly sliced beets, supremed citrus, sliced avocado, and crumbled feta.  Drizzle a little more dressing over all and then sprinkle on plenty of the nut combo before serving.

Note that the salad can scaled up or down in quantities of each component depending on how many people you are serving.  I have made it for a group and also several times as a single serving salad; using roughly one beet, one orange, and half an avocado per person.  In my opinion, you can skimp on anything but the nut combo!