Beet and Beer Salad

So, in case you haven't noticed (like the Brain) that I've been on a teensy bit of a bender this week. This week has been all about beer. But why? Why not really. Well actually there are a couple reasons.

First, it's the week leading up to St. Patrick's Day, and while that may seem like a good enough reason, Emeline over at Sugar Plum is hosting a fabulous Pub Crawl blog event.

Second, I'm Catholic so drinking is definitely not forbidden. It's what we do. Heck it's almost encouraged. Come to Church and have some wine with us. (As a side note, this is not technically the case, Catholic doctrine says that the wine through a miracle becomes the blood of Christ so it's not actually wine anymore.) One could extrapolate that if wine is OK then beer must also be OK.

Third, beer tastes really good. And when I was searching for something for Emeline's blog event I found a whole bunch of delicious recipes I wanted to try.

So why am I submitting tonight's recipe for the Pub Crawl? Well, it's damass good. I mean really surprisingly beerily delicious. Beer and beets. Who would have thought. And it's also really original. Although it's not very original of me to submit it being that I took inspiration from a recipe on Bon Appetit. Really, although I really really liked all of the beer recipes so far, I think this one is so unexpected and almost healthy (really- go to epicurious.com and check out the nutrition info) that I like it the best. Maybe it's been a while since I've had a fresh vegetable and I was craving them. Even the Brain, who doesn't care for beets, ate his whole salad up. That says something.

Of course you could probably slather a brick in beer, bacon, and feta and I'd eat it all up.

Warm Beet and Beer Salad

Inspired by Bon Appetit

3 beets, peeled and cut into thick wedges

3 thick cut bacon slices

1/2 large onion sliced thinly

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp packed brown sugar

1 tsp anise seed

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

3 cups spring mix salad blend

Cook beets in boiling salted water until tender, approximately 12 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile saute bacon in a large skillet over medium high heat until crisp. Transfer bacon to a paper towel lined plate to drain and cool. Once cool, crumble the bacon. Drain off all but 1 tablespoon bacon fat from the skillet and add onions and saute for about 3 minutes or until they start to caramelize. Add the beer, vinegar, sugar, and anise seed and cook for 5 minutes. Add the beets and cook for 5 more minutes until the dressing is reduced and thick.

Spread the salad blend over two plates. Heap the warm beet and onion mixture on top of the salad mix. Sprinkle the crumbled bacon and feta on top and serve immediately.