Recipe: Roasted Beets & Pears with Sautéed Beet Greens

What a rough couple of weeks! Sorry things have been so slow around here but as I mentioned in my last post, after enjoying the Thanksgiving festivities I was knocked down with walking pneumonia, something I had never had and doesn’t recommend (although the free ab toning and weight loss was a nice bonus, lol). Normally if I’m sick I know I have to cook something for myself to make sure I keep going but this hit me so hard there were times I forgot I had a kitchen or the need to eat. Fortunately, after a lot of rest (a week off work – D’OH! I shudder to think of the financial consequences of this…) and plenty of meds I am back at work and back in the kitchen. I’m still not 100% but I’m definitely much better than I have been in the past couple of weeks and couldn’t be happier about that. So far I’ve had a blast making a huge batch of my (almost) famous Hearty Mushroom & Potato Soup and toying around with the beginnings of the recipe I am about to feature. It’s great to be back in my kitchen and even better to be back in blogging mode.

I don’t know about all of you but after I’m really sick I just want to eat a lot of healthy and green things. I’m not sure if it’s something my body craves to detox itself from the ickiness of meds or if it’s something purely psychological, but the last thing I want to eat is anything unhealthy! I crave leafy greens, fresh vegetables, LIFE. Unfortunately, it’s too friggin’ cold here in Sacramento to really enjoy these things in their perfectly raw state (we had snow on Monday, for crying out loud!), so I thought I’d improvise a bit. I had some gorgeous beets still hanging around from the last time I went shopping that I knew I’d be roasting and putting into something eventually. I remembered I’d rinsed & saved their beautiful greens too, so I wanted to make sure to use those before it was too late.

Now you all know how I feel about my roasted beets – I LOVE them! The sad part is that I haven’t really played much with the incredibly healthy greens that come along with them. I’ve tossed them in a couple of stir-frys here and there just for texture but I’ve never experimented with their own unique flavor. I thought it would be fun to contrast their very slight bitterness against the natural sweetness of the actual beets, with the extra treat of roasted pears. Though I’m sure a good Bosc pear would be great in this recipe because of its firmness, feel free to use any pear varietal that you might have at your disposal; it’s the sweetness & texture that counts more than the actual type of pear. (NOTE: I do not recommend adding too much to the pears in the way of spices as this will detract from the simplicity of the flavors and not go well with the beets.) A simple balsamic-honey dressing tossed with this early winter salad brings everything together, and the addition of gorgonzola crumbles adds extra zip. I would imagine adding some sort of candied nuts like walnuts or pecans would just put this dish over the top in excellence, but alas, Poor Girl must make do with what she’s got. I’m not complaining, though! This is a great side dish that easy to make and would probably go well with a nice pork loin, though I ate my big bowl of early winter goodness on its own. It definitely gave me the health boost I needed and now I’m ready to start concocting another sinful dessert to bring to you later this week. 😉 But first, eat your veggies!