Arugula Beet Salad with Candied Pecans & Gorgonzola Cheese

This Arugula Beet Salad with Candied Pecans and Gorgonzola Cheese is not only simple to make, but it’s also delicious with a beautiful presentation.

This salad is so delicious and can be eaten with or without the dressing. Isn’t it pretty?  You could easily make this a spinach salad if you’d like because let’s be real, anything tastes great with candied pecans.   This is one of those perfect, healthy, quick dinner ideas that we are always searching for.

And if you are like me, you don’t make enough salads at home. Why do salads usually taste better from a restaurant? It doesn’t even make sense.

This salad recipe changes everything.

I realize I wasn’t adding anything fun, like these candied pecans. All of my salads were pretty boring. Some type of greens (usually spinach), chopped veggies (usually your basic cucumber, pepper and tomato), some type of cheese (typically shredded cheddar) and a light dressing, like olive oil and lemon.

Although sometimes a simple salad like that tastes delicious, it’s really just plain old boring. Don’t you agree?

I don’t actually think salads just taste better in restaurants (duh!) I am pretty sure I showed no creativity at all. Sometimes we just get into ruts, am I right? And this show stopper salad helped to get me out of that rut!

Does that happen to you too? You keep making the same meals over and over and you aren’t enjoying them at all? That’s when I need to start searching online or in my cookbooks for some new recipes to inspire me.

I can’t be alone here.

The same goes for dinner recipes for my kids. After a while I realize that I keep making the same few recipes over and over. Can you say monotonous? I know my kids can!

So go ahead, mix up your salad game and make this. Change it whatever you have in the house or whatever you are craving at the time. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

 

Arugula Beet Salad with Candied Pecans & Gorgonzola Cheese

5 ounces organic baby arugula

1 pound beets (about 3-4 medium sized beets)

3 tablespoons Candied Pecans

1/4 cup crumbled Gorgonzola Cheese

Dressing:

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 Tablespoon oil of your choice (I used olive oil)

1 Tablespoon ground Chia seed

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 large garlic clove, finely chopped

1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped

Directions

1. Place arugula in large bowl.

1. Scrub beets clean and place in steamer basket.    Cook about 30 minutes until cooked through.  Allow to cool, then rub skins off and cut into 1 inch slices.  Place on top of arugula.
2. Take a clean, empty jar or tupperware with a lid and add the mustard, balsamic vinegar, oil, salt, chia seed and freshly ground black pepper.
3.  Add the chopped garlic along with the fresh basil.
4. Cover the jar and shake well to blend.  Set aside.
5. Put candied pecans and Gorgonzola cheese on top of arugula.  Top with dressing.  Serve immediately.

What I love about this salad is that it really has a beautiful presentation so you can easily make it for a party or gathering. It also looks pretty fancy too, although it really is simple. So let’s fool everyone into thinking this took hours to prepare! I am so down for that.

Now let’s talk about cheese. The possibilities are endless in this salad. I have made this with feta cheese (yum), shredded cheddar (eh), fresh chunks of Parmesan (yum) and provolone (pretty good). Although I like the gorgonzola and Parmesan the best, the feta cheese was a definite close second.

I have also added shredded chicken to this to make this a complete meal. To be honest, it just kind of worked out that way because I had planned to make this and I had a rotisserie chicken in the refrigerator. It was delicious, and again it looked beautiful.

Now let’s discuss these incredible, lightened up candied pecans. They truly make this salad. They are the star of this salad, adding a lightly sweet and crunchy texture.

When I make these, I like to make a double batch and put them into portion controlled plastic bags so I don’t overeat, which is really easy to do. They can be extremely addictive because who can resist the combination of sweet and salty? Not me!

Trust me when I say you should put them into individual portion controlled containers or bags. Or you just might end up with an empty bowl and maybe a bit of stomach ache. Not that I’d know from experience of course.

I thought I’d share some more easy, healthy salads you might like to make to spice up your salad routine:

Greek Artichoke Cauliflower Rice Salad

 

Harvest Cobb Salad from Damn Delicious

 

Simple Salad with Orange Vinaigrette

Roasted Root Vegetable and Kale Salad with Creamy Turmeric Dressing from Gourmande in the Kitchen

Spiralized Beet Quinoa Salad

Tuna Nicoise Salad with Avocado Green Goddess Dressing from The Lemon Bowl

Caprese Quinoa Salad

Tabouli Shrimp Salad from Wonky Wonderful

Grilled Baby Boy Choy Salad with Honey Miso Dressing

Cajun Smoked Salmon Zucchini Noodle Salad from Cotter Crunch

Mexican Bean Salad

Zucchini Noodle Pad Thai Salad with Sesame Cashew Dressing from Spoonful of Flavor

Watermelon Feta Salad with Mint Balsamic Dressing

Thai Cucumber Salad from All Day I Dream About Food

Winter Kale Salad with Butternut Squash and Farro

Vegan Paleo Broccoli Cashew Salad from Food Faith Fitness

Chopped Mexican Kale Salad with Creamy Avocado Dressing

Please let me know if you made this Arugula Beet Salad with Candied Pecans & Gorgonzola Cheese or any of the other salads I shared above. I would love to hear from you! And I always enjoy hearing about your substitutions to my recipes, it frequently inspires me and helps me to mix up my boring routines! So thank you!

Hope you enjoy it! Thanks for stopping by~