Beet Salad with Peaches and Honey Balsamic Dressing

I’m a bit jealous.

My longtime friend Mona tends bees. She started a few years ago and though I have often thought I’d like to do the same, I have yet to learn. I tried to sign up for a course in the spring but was already too late. I’m signed up for one in October though so I’m super excited about that!

Bees are so vitally important to our ecosystem and helping them along in whatever way we can feels important to me. It’s not that I think bees need humans to survive, but with caring and careful humans tending them at least disease control is practiced.

Did you know that honey is the only food that doesn’t go bad? And, that there are thousands of varieties of bees but only 7 of these species make honey? Seven, that is astounding to me.

On my recent trip to BC, Mona offered me the opportunity to ‘suit up’ (I looked ridiculous wearing her husband Bill’s bee suit – like a deflated marshmallow man) and join her while she had a look in on her hive. She was expecting to be extracting honey within the next two weeks and just wanted to be sure that her bees were not going to run out of room before that happened.

Here, Mona is lifting the cover from the hive to expose the frames and the bees inside. If this is done carefully, there is little need for smoking the bees. They really are pretty docile.

The frame is pulled, ever so gently from the super so that it can be inspected. Here, we can see that the bees are busily capping the cells to seal them off. Look at all that yummy honey!

This frame was fully capped so Mona gently brushed the bees off and took the frame to extract the honey. A new, empty frame was put in its place, allowing the bees some extra living space until she is ready to extract her honey for the fall, leaving them just enough to survive the winter.

I found the whole experience to be fascinating, and I definitely want to learn more.

Mona lives on an acreage that is planted with peaches too so I got to pick a big bunch of fresh juicy peaches right from the tree. A real summer treat. 

I’ve frozen a bunch of the peaches to use in smoothies for the winter, and we’ve eaten plenty but I’ve still got a big box in the fridge. So I decided to use the honey and the peaches together, along with some of my own garden beets in a lovely, fresh, late summer salad. 

My lettuce is long done as it doesn’t like the summer heat so store-bought baby greens formed the base of this salad. Chunky roasted beets, shaved red onion, peaches, a bit of goat cheese and some toasted almonds added heft and crunch. The salad was then dressed with a honey balsamic vinaigrette.

Sooo good!

Beet Salad with Peaches and Honey Balsamic Dressing

Servings: 4

Author: www.miasdailydish.com

A wonderful, late summer salad featuring fresh peaches and roasted beets.

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Ingredients

• 1 small clamshell package mixed salad greens
• 2 medium beets roasted (you could also used boiled beets)
• 3 Tbsp very thinly sliced red onion
• 2 medium peaches sliced thinly
• 3 Tbsp sliced almonds toasted
• 1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese optional

For the dressing

• 1 Tbsp honey
• 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp grainy dijon mustard smooth dijon is fine too
• 1/4 C olive oil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• pepper

Instructions

For the beets

1. Roast the beets ahead of time by drizzling with a bit of olive oil and placing them in a foil packet in a 400° oven or on a hot barbecue for about 40 minutes. Let cool then peel the skin off if desired. Refrigerate if making ahead. Cut into 1/2" dice.

Assemble the salad

1. Place greens into a large bowl. Add diced beets, sliced peaches, and onion, reserving about half of each.
2. Toss gently with fingers then add the reserved beets, peaches and onions to the top of the salad.
3. Top with almonds and goat cheese
4. Serve dressing on the side to avoid soggy salad

For the dressing

1. Put honey, balsamic and mustard into a small bowl. Whisk with a fork until honey dissolves. Add salt, and pepper to taste. Whisk olive oil into dressing to emulsify. Serve alongside the salad.