A Golden Salad

Our CSA continues to be a big boon to our diet, especially on Sunday mornings when the box arrives and I get to tear it open and make something right away for breakfast or lunch or a combination of those two meals (someone should come up with a name for that). Last week’s box contained some Boston lettuce, the box from the week before had golden beets that I hadn’t used yet. So, on Sunday at 11:30 AM, a vision slowly began to hatch in my brain: what if I roasted those golden beets and, at the same time, boiled a few eggs just so the whites firmed up and the yolks were runny. I could toss the lettuce with a mustardy dressing, using Dorie Greenspan’s mustard bottle technique and bring it all together like a golden vision.

Actually, the golden vision part came as a bit of a surprise. Even though I knew I’d have runny yolks, I didn’t realize those yolks would match the golden beets so well. In terms of techniques/temperatures: I had the oven at 400, placed the beets on foil and drizzled them with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper, before wrapping them into a packet and roasting for about 45 minutes, until a knife went through easily. After that you rub off the skins with a paper towel and slice them into wedges.

For the eggs, this is my new favorite technique: bring a pot of water to a boil. Lower in your eggs and boil them for exactly 8 minutes; then shock them in ice water. That’s all there is to it.

The rest is pretty much self-explanatory. It’s a lovely salad, don’t you think?

Thank you, CSA, for being the King Midas of our lunch table. You’ve turned an everyday salad into GOLD.