Borscht Salad

I am calling this one Borscht Salad because...well, it reminds me of borscht. The beets imbued the entire dish with a beautiful reddish-pink color, and the cannellini beans give it that dense, warm feeling that accompanies a cup of soup.

This salad is a follow-up recipe to the White Winter Salad, and it serves as a demonstration of how to strategize and use ingredients you already have on hand.

1/2 bulb fennel
1 gala apple
1/4 onion
1 bunch beets, greens removed
cannellini beans

red wine vinegar
sugar
mustard
salt, pepper
olive oil

fennel fronds

If you already made my previous salad, you should have extra cooked cannellini beans on hand. If you don't, start them first. Make sure to include seasonings in the water (bay leaf, garlic, onion, thyme). Meanwhile, set the oven to 400 and peel and cut up the beets (I cut each beet in half lenthwise then cut them again into thin half-circles). Toss them with olive oil, salt and pepper, then roast them until they are nice and tender. You could also boil or roast them whole, but roasting the individual slices makes them slightly chewier, lending a pleasant texture to the salad.

While the beets are roasting, slice the fennel, apple and onion paper thin with a mandoline slicer. Mix up the vinaigrette (my method: put about 1/8 to 1/4 cup of vinegar in a bowl, then add sugar until you've mellowed out the vinegar just enough. Add salt, pepper, vinegar, taste the mixture and adjust accordingly. Now add the olive oil while whisking so the mixture emusifies.) When everything is ready, combine it all in a bowl, adding as many beans as you think is necessary. The more you stir, the pinker the salad will become. Add fennel fronds as a garnish.