This Beets and Oranges Salad with mint and an orange vinaigrette is a great Mediterranean salad that is perfect for the Holidays. This salad combines both bright colors and bold flavors for a beautiful & delicious side dish!!
I love adding beets to my salads. Beets are commonly used in many Mediterranean countries and they’re valued for their flavor, health benefits and vibrant color.
I grew up in Albania and we mainly used beets in late Fall and Winter which makes this root vegetable the perfect candidate for Holiday recipes.
I have used beets in this Sweet Potato and Beets Salad (perfect for Thanksgiving), this Beets and Burrata Salad , this Beets and Chestnuts Salad (amazing during Christmas time) or even as a topping for the Albanian version of the Russian Salad which is typically served for New Years Eve celebrations in my home country.
I even make a salad with Green Beans & Beets which is perfect for the holidays.
How to cook beets?
Usually we either boil or roast beets. You can choose the method that is easier for you. For this recipe, I boiled the beets until I could pierce them with a fork. Then I left them to cool off until I could peel them.
Making this wintery salad
While it might look complicated, this is a very simple salad to make and very well worth the effort.
Let’s break the steps down!
- Boil the beets, let them cool off, peel and cut them in cubes. Set aside.
- Cut red onion in slices, add them in cold water to remove odor and the sharp taste.
- Zest and then squeeze 1 orange. Slice another one very thin.
- Prepare the vinaigrette with olive oil, orange juice, orange zest and salt. Mix and set aside.
- Chop off half of the mint, leave the other half intact as garnish for later.
- Drain the onions, add them over beets cubes. Add the chopped mint and pour the vinaigrette over. Mix thouroughly to coat all the beets.
- Grab a salad platter. Layer spring mix or arugula. Add the orange slices over the greens. Then pour over the marinated beets, spread the vinaigrette evenly. Add the remaining mint leaves as garnish. Serve cold or at room temperature!
Beets and Oranges Salad
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 beets
- 2 oranges
- 3 ozs spring mix
- 20 leaves mint more or less to your taste, doesn't have to be exact
- 4 tbsps olive oil
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 0.5 red onion
Instructions
- Rinse beets, chop off top and tail, add them to a medium sauce pot. Cover them in water and boil until you can pierce with a fork. Usually about 30 minutes.
- Let the beets cool to touch, them peel them and cut them in bite size pieces.
- Slice red onion in thin pieces, add them to a bowl of cold water to remove the smell.
- In a mason jar mix olive oil, zest of one orange and the juice from the orange. Add salt and either mix with a spoon or shake the jar with a lid on. Set the vinaigrette aside.
- Add sliced onions over beets bites. Add chopped mint. Pour the vinaigrette over and mix everything well.
- On the salad platter, layer the spring mix first. Then slice the remaining orange into this slices and spread those over the spring mix. Now pour the mix of beets, onions, vinaigrette over the oranges and spring mix. Add some more salt to taste if needed and garnish with additional mint leaves as desired. Serve with your favorite meals! Enjoy:).
Notes
- You can boil the beets ahead of time and let them cool in the refrigerator in a container for few days until you are ready to use them.
- We never have leftovers of this salad so haven’t stored in but as any salad, you might have to store leftovers in an airtight container and as little as possible dressing with it. Create a new dressing when ready to serve again and add some more greens to supplement.
- Some additional ingredients you can add to this salad would be more herbs, radishes, seasonings, etc.
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Nutrition Label
Nutrition
If you would like to save this recipe for later, please save one of your favorite pictures of this recipe to your Salads or Holidays boards in Pinterest so you can easily access it later. Feel free to tell me in comments how the salad turned out or tag me with pictures in social media.
Thank you for reading my blog!!
Additional Salads
- Dill and Lettuce Salad with Feta Cheese
- Mediterranean Orange Salad
- Mediterranean Potato Salad
- Chickpeas and Cucumber Salad
Janice
Just to be clear, you are leaving the fine on the orange. Share you eating it that way? Just seems inconvenient if the person has to cut the rinds off as they eat?
Sonila
Hi Janice, yes it’s more for the look but you can peel the oranges and then slice them. It’s up to you:).