Roasted Beet and Ricotta Salad with Panko Chicken

This was a more time consuming dish than I normally make... but I got out of the office early and felt like a nice dinner on the roofdeck so roasted beets it was!

2 bunches of baby beets - any color - I used red ones
2 scallions
1 1/2 TB red wine vinegar
1 1/2 TB olive oil
2 TB fresh mint
Fresh spinach
Ricotta Cheese
3 TB toasted slivered almonds
Boneless Skinless Chicken breast - I used one and halved it, since that's enough normally if I take the small half
Panko breadcrumbs
1 egg

First, preheat the oven to 400 degrees to get the beets going - chop off the tops and put them in a small baking dish with 1 cup of hot water.  Leave the skins on for now, they will come right off with a paper towel once the beets are roasted. Cover the dish with tin foil and cook for 45 minutes.

While that's going, you can toast the almonds, pine nuts, walnuts, whatever you have. I had slivered almonds so I toasted them in a pan over high heat. Have a dish ready - once they start toasting, they will brown up quickly!

Then I prepped the chicken to bread. I trimmed the chicken, coated it in egg and dipped it in panko.  I added the chicken to the oven when there were 20 min left on the beets. 

Then I prepped the salad.  Chop the two scallions and add to a large bowl. Add the chopped mint, red wine vinegar and olive oil. I also added some haricot verts because I had a few left over. Add the spinach and toss all together until everything is coated.

Once the beets and chicken are done, remove them from the oven and take the beets out of the water immediately so they can cool. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes before you slice it. Use a paper towel to rub the beet skins off and dice the beets and add to the salad mixture.

Plate the salad and top with a generous spoonful of ricotta cheese. Add freshly ground pepper to the ricotta and top with the panko chicken, sliced on the diagonal.

9 from me, 7 from hubby.  I think it was a little too much salad for him.  (I even added a few baby red potatoes that I boiled.)  Next time, I might do the beets / ricotta idea with farro or barley with some chopped spinach incorporated.  Then it would be less salad and a little heartier for the hubs.