Roasted Beet Salad with Feta - #recipe from To Err is Cumin by @LeslieBudewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  I've always enjoyed beets, but don't cook with them often because of my perception that they are a PITA* to cook. When I saw a version of this salad, I decided to try again, and by golly, it wasn't nearly as bothersome as I'd remembered. And it was the perfect salad for Pepper, my Spice Shop owner, to make in To Err is Cumin, the 8th Spice Shop mystery, coming July 16 in pb, ebook and audio.

If it's super hot where you are, you might like to try the microwave method, which I first discovered in the Washington Post food section. It's quicker and not as messy as oven roasting, and just as good as oven roasting.  

Enjoy! 

*pain in the anise, a phrase Pepper loves -- and so do I!

PS: I finally figured out how to embed a PDF of the recipe so you can print it easily. Scroll down to the 💕 for the link. 

Roasted Beet and Feta Salad with Cumin Dressing 

No matter how you roast your beets, this is a tasty salad any time of year! Pepper varies the dressing now and then, substituting walnut oil and balsamic vinegar for the olive oil and lemon juice, and adding toasted walnuts on top. 

For the beets:

1 pound red or golden beets, or a mix (3-4 medium beets)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil (for oven roasting)

½ cup water (for microwaving)

For the salad:

4 ounces feta, crumbled

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon cumin seeds (raw or toasted)

½ teaspoon ground cumin

salad greens, washed and cut or torn

parsley or cilantro leaves (for optional garnish)

To roast beets in the oven: (pictured) Heat oven to 375 degrees. Trim and wash the beets. Place the beets on a piece of foil. Sprinkle with salt and drizzle with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Wrap the foil over the beets and place on a baking sheet. Roast until tender when poked with a fork or knife, 30-45 minutes. Let sit until cool enough to handle, about 20 minutes, then slip off skins and dice the beets into bite-sized pieces.

To roast in the microwave: (not shown) In a microwaveable bowl, combine the beets, salt, and water. Cover and cook in the microwave on high for 8 minutes. Stir and cook on HIGH for an additional 7 minutes, or until the beets can be easily pierced with a fork or knife. Drain any remaining liquid remains. Let sit until cool enough to handle, about 20 minutes, then peel and dice into bite-sized pieces. 

In a medium bowl, combine the diced beets, feta, 1 tablespoon olive oil, lemon juice, cumin seeds, and ground cumin.  

Serve on a bed of mixed greens, with parsley or cilantro leaves as optional garnish.

Serves 4 as a side salad. 

💕 Click here for a free printable PDF! 

TO ERR IS CUMIN: A Spice Shop Mystery (Seventh St. Books, coming July 16, 2024 in paper, ebook, and audio)

From the cover: 

One person’s treasure is another’s trash. . .

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, wants nothing more than to live a quiet life for a change, running her shop and working with customers eager to spice up their cooking. But when she finds an envelope stuffed with cash in a ratty old wingback left on the curb, she sets out to track down the owner.

Pepper soon concludes that the chair and its stash may belong to young Talia Cook, new in town and nowhere to be seen. Boz Bosworth, an unemployed chef Pepper’s tangled with in the past, shows up looking for the young woman, but Pepper refuses to help him search. When Boz is found floating in the Ship Canal, only a few blocks from Talia’s apartment, free furniture no longer seems like such a bargain.

On the hunt for Talia, Pepper discovers a web of connections threatening to ensnare her best customer. The more she probes, the harder it gets to tell who’s part of an unsavory scheme of corruption—and who might be the next victim.

Between her quest for an elusive herb, helping her parents remodel their new house, and setting up the Spice Shop’s first cooking class, Pepper’s got a full plate. Dogged by a sense of obligation to find the rightful owner of the hidden treasure, she keeps on showing up and asking questions.

One mistake, and she could find herself cashing out. . .

Available at Amazon  * Barnes & Noble  * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * And your local booksellers!

And coming in September:

Take a step back in time with All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection of historical short mysteries, featuring the Agatha-Award winning "All God's Sparrows" and other stories imagining the life of real-life historical figure Mary Fields, born into slavery in 1832, during the last thirty years of her life, in Montana. Coming September 17, 2024 from Beyond the Page Publishing; available for preorder now wherever you buy books. 

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest book is Between a Wok and a Dead Place, the 7th Spice Shop mystery.  Watch for To Err is Cumin, the 8th Spice Shop Mystery, in July 2024 and All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection, in September 2024. 

A past president of Sisters in Crime and national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.