Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Yield: 4-6 servings
Ingredients
1 bunch each small-medium red beets and golden beets, scrubbed
1 lb. ricotta cheese or vegan ricotta (kite hill is a good brand)
zest of 1 lemon
pinch of salt
for the pesto
leaves only from two bunches of beets (discard stems), washed and dried
½ cup walnuts
2 small or 1 large clove garlic
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp. fine sea salt
½ cup olive oil
Directions
Preheat oven to 400°F. trim tops and bottom long root off of beets and place them whole in a baking dish. Cover dish with foil and roast in oven for 1 hour or until tender when pierced. Allow beets to cool.
While beets are roasting, make pesto: in a food processor fitted with the S blade, combine beet greens, walnuts, garlic, salt and lemon juice. Pulse to chop and combine. With food processor running, slowly stream in oil through feed tube until fully combined.
In a small bowl, mix ricotta cheese with lemon zest and a pinch of salt. Arrange ricotta on serving platter as a bed for beets.
Using gloves or 2 plastic baggies, rub beets gently to remove skins. Cut beets into chunks and arrange over ricotta. Drizzle pesto over beets and ricotta.
Serve immediately.
Pesto can be made a day in advance and stored in refrigerator.Bring to room temperature before serving.