French Fridays with Dorie: Beet and Icy Red Onion Salad

This is a quickie post, before I dive into the holiday weekend, to get in this week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Chunky Beets and Icy Red Onions. According to Dorie, you might order this as a starter salad in a French bistro, but it also pairs well alongside anything grilled. Add goat cheese, cherry tomatoes, and arugula for another variation.

Roasting is my preferred method for beets, but I couldn't see heating up the house for three beets this time of year. Thankfully, Dorie introduced me to the microwave method (you can also steam or boil the beets). I rarely use the microwave, other than a quick zap if I need melted butter, but it worked fine for this purpose.

Beets from Little Italy Mercato

While the beets are cooking and cooling, whisk the vinaigrette with a lovely combination of olive oil, sherry vinegar, honey, and Dijon. The cooled beets are then cubed or sliced, tossed gently in the vinaigrette, and chilled for about an hour.

Another interesting tip when using raw onions, to give them crunch and remove any bitterness, is to slosh the thinly sliced onions in a bowl of cold water, drain, and repeat. Fill the bowl back up with cold water, add the onions and some ice cubes, and refrigerate until ready to use.

When you are ready to serve the salad, add minced, fresh herbs to the beets (oregano, marjoram, thyme, or parsley), fold gently, and season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Drain the onion slices, pat dry, and sprinkle over the top of the salad.

Have a wonderful Fourth of July weekend!

French Fridays with Dorie is an online cooking group, that just hit 2,000 members, dedicated to Dorie Greenspan‘s newest book Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours.  As members of the group, we have purchased the cookbook and cook along as much as we can. There is a new recipe each week, and we post about that recipe on Friday. We are asked to refrain from posting the actual recipes on our blog. The book is filled with stunning photography, and personal stories about each recipe, which makes it that much more intriguing. I highly recommend adding it to your cookbook collection if you haven't already!