Beet Salad with Buttermilk Whipped Ricotta, Pistachios, Sherry Vinaigrette and Horseradish

This salad is a cheat. What I mean by that is I hate hate hate cooking beets. Yes I hate the mess and the time involved. So I found a great product and I used it to make this salad and I'm not sorry. Not fuss, no mess, no trying to get red stains out of my kitchen. I'm not sorry.

So how do you make this salad?  And I'm telling you you should make this salad if you like beets because it's so simple and so delicious.

First you take ricotta and you put it in a bowl. You add salt and pepper and 3 tablespoons of buttermilk. Then you take a whisk and you whip it till combined. Then cover the bowl and put it in the fridge for about three hours.

When you are ready to make the salad this is what you do. You take a jar...yes a jar of Trader Joes beets in vinaigrette. This product is amazing. It's not your normal pickled beets (which you could use) but you don't even have to cut up the beets cause they have done it already. You just drain them really well. As you can tell from the picture I did not do that too well on this batch but oh well it was yummy.

Take your serving plate. This will serve 2 to 4 people depending on what else you are serving as a first course or salad. Take you ricotta and mound it in the middle of the plate. Then using a large tablespoon push the ricotta out of the center forming a barrier or wall of cheese in a circle. Then in the empty space carefully pour or spoon in your beets. Pour a little Sherry vinegar and really really good olive oil over the beets and season the top with sea salt flakes and pepper. Top with a few dallops of prepared horseradish and sprinkle with the nuts. If you want to get fancy zest some lemon over the top. Garnish with whatever green herb you have on hand. I used chives.

That's it. It's so easy and such a cheat and so so so good. I love it and you will too!

Ingredients: for a portion serving 2 to 4

1 jar Trader Joe's Beets in Vinaigrette - drained
1 8 Oz container Ricotta, (You'll use about 2/3's of this for the salad but mix the whole container with with the butter milk and use the rest later)
3 tablespoons buttermilk
Pistachios
Prepared Horseradish
Salt and pepper
Sherry Vinegar
Olive oil

Please feel free to comment I'd love to hear from you.