Tangelo Salad with Roasted Beetroot

Fresh and vibrant Tangelo Salad perfect for outdoor entertaining and weekday packed lunches. We love how the juicy sweet tangelo, crunchy radishes and creamy pine nuts complement the earthy sweet roasted beetroots perfectly.

Why I Love Roasted Beetroot Salad with Tangelo and Pine Nuts

The freshness. The vibrancy. The earthy notes. Everything. Love everything about this roast beetroot tangelo salad.

It’s so simple to whip up. Roasting beetroots may sound like a long and arduous cooking process but it’s so not. Wash, trim, season, wrap in foil and bang it in a hot oven and let it do its thing. That’s it.

You can even prepare this the day before. Roasted beetroots can keep in the fridge and tastes even better when dressed for longer.

And just when I thought I couldn’t love this recipe even more, I get a text message from my not-so-beetroot-loving husband the next day to say the salad I had packed for lunch was delicious.

You can imagine the smile I had on my face!

What Are the Different Ways to Cook Beetroot?

Growing up I detested beetroot. All I ever tasted was beetroot from a can. Ugh…the soft mushy texture with a tin taste did not create any yummy memories. Fresh beetroot was just not a part of my family’s Asian cooking.

The first time I tried fresh beetroot, it was roasted and was so DE.LICIOUS! Nothing like the canned version at all. With an earthy but sweet taste, roasted beets had bite and flavour.

Ever since then, I have loved every version of beetroot. I must say lightly pickled roast baby beets is still my fav.

Beetroot is such a versatile vegetable. You can eat it raw, roasted, boiled, pickled, creamed, fried and baked! Yes, baked. I added grated beetroot to a chocolate brownie mix once and it was so deliciously moist.

And no wasting of beetroot leaves too! You can eat the green leaves and stalks substituting vegetables like spinach and swiss chard. When we have beetroot in the garden, I pick the baby leaves to add to our salad greens.

What Are the Different Types of Beetroot?

Typically red beets are the ones that come to mind when we say beetroot. However at some grocery stores or your local farmers market, you can also find golden and chioggia beetroot.

Golden beetroot is just like the name, a golden yellow colour. They don’t stain like red beetroot when you cook them but are slightly less sweet than red beetroot.

Whilst chioggia beetroot may look like a normal beetroot on the outside but on the inside it is just like red and white candy canes!

Naturally striped, these beets make a fantastic raw addition to salads – adds crunch and fantastic colour. You can use them as normal beets but they do lose their colour and stripes when cooked.

For this recipe, I have used both baby red and golden beets for a balance of taste and colour.

We love using a variety of beetroot for your salads such as Roasted Beetroot Salad with Halloumi and Pomegranate Glaze or Yellow Salad with Zucchini Flowers.

When Are Tangelos in Season?

Tangelos are a hybrid citrus fruit between tangerine and pomelo hence where the fruit gets its name. In Australia, the most common variety is the Minneola which is a cross between mandarin and grapefruit.

You can identify a Minnelo by its distinctive bell shape with a small knob at the top of the fruit. They are in season between July and October, our late winter to early spring months. In America, you will find them in similar season between January and March.

Like most citrus fruits, tangelos are a good source of vitamin C and dietary fibre. A great addition to school lunch boxes as they are easy to peel and super juicy. Although known to be slightly more tangy than a mandarin, the ones I bought this season were quite sweet.

They are great to throw in healthy salads, cooking them down in a marmalade or dice up and add to a cake mixture. Very versatile and delicious.

In this recipe, you can substitute tangelos with oranges if they are not in season.

How to Make Roasted Beetroot Salad with Tangelo and Pine Nuts

How to Roast Baby Beetroot

For this beetroot salad recipe, I used both baby red and golden beetroots and only because I had just been to the local farmers market that weekend.

Red baby beets or even large beets work just as well. For larger beets, just cut them into bite-sized pieces after roasting.

Trim the green tops off the baby beets, give it a good wash, place in foil and season with salt. I normally put all my baby beets together in one parcel but if you have larger beets, you may want to wrap individual parcels.

Wrap foil parcel up tightly and roast in oven. This will take approximately 45-55 minutes in a preheated 180°C (350°F) oven. Smaller beets will cook a little faster so you may want to check after 30 minutes in the oven.

To check if the beetroot is tender, you can use a fork or skewer to pierce through it. Beets are done when you can slide the fork or skewer easily to the centre.

Remove beets from oven.

After the beetroot has cooled down, peel the skin off.

The sensible way to peel beetroots to avoid stains is to of course wear disposable gloves. However, I don’t often have disposable gloves in the house so I just peel beetroots quickly under running water to avoid stains on my hands. Generally does the trick.

Cut the baby beets into halves or quarters depending on size. If you have used larger beets, cut them into bite-sized pieces.

How to Make Red Wine Vinaigrette

After roasting the beets, I like to dress them straight away so they can absorb the delicious flavours of the vinaigrette.

For beetroot salad dressing, place olive oil, red wine vinegar, honey, salt and pepper in a jar and give it a good shake.

Use half the vinaigrette to cover the roasted beets and toss well. Leave roasted beets sitting in dressing until assembly.

Keep the remainder of the vinaigrette for the salad later.

How to Cut Tangelo

I love the sweet tangy flavours of tangelo and how it balances this tangelo recipe perfectly. If tangelo is not in season, navel oranges matches well with beetroot and pine nuts.

Oranges can be sweeter than tangelos but provides the juicy citrus flavours in the salad. If you find it too sweet with oranges, then I would dial up the red wine vinegar in the dressing by ½ tsp to give it a more acidic balance.

Although a fiddly process for me, I decided to cut the tangelo into segments. I wanted to present the beetroot, radish and tangelo in similar shapes but you could also present them in wheels too. Whatever works for you!

Peel tangelo and remove any pith with a sharp knife so it is nice and smooth. Cut the tangelo in half and remove any pips you may see.

Holding the tangelo over a bowl, carefully cut along the membranes and slice the tangelo segments out. Let the tangelo segments and juices fall into the bowl.

Continue to rotate the tangelo until you have sliced all the segments. Remove tangelo segments from bowl and place on plate ready for assembly.

Prepare Tangelo Salad

Wash and rinse radishes well. Trim the stalks and then cut into quarters.

Rinse and shake dry salad leaves ready for assembling.

Over a medium-hot heat, toast pine nuts in a dry pan until golden brown. Be warned – the smell of toasted pine nuts may encourage you to snack on the pine nuts before assembly. So toast more than you need if this happens to you (hahaha…just sharing personal experiences).

How to Assemble Tangelo Salad

In a large bowl, start layering with salad leaves.

Remove roasted beetroot from the dressing and place evenly around the bowl. Add tangelo segments and cut radishes.

Dress salad and toss well.

Finally scatter pine nuts to serve.

This beetroot salad recipe works well as a side companion at barbeques or with roast lamb and grilled fish.

For a vegan meal, serve with eggplant lasagne or vegan paella. The freshness of the beetroot salad will help balance hearty main meals.

If you are planning to pack this roasted beetroot tangelo salad for a picnic or workday lunch, I would keep vinaigrette in a small container and dress it when you want to serve it. It is mainly to avoid soggy salad leaves.

Easy. Fresh. Delicious. Our roasted beetroot tangelo salad with pine nuts is definitely worth adding to your menu this week.

That’s all!

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