This beet and apple salad features a tangy honey mustard dressing, tart green apples, mixed greens, and chopped pistachios.

By our scientific calculations, less than half of the food Alex and I eat is made from a planned recipe. That leaves at least 55% of our daily meals up to improvisation – that is, combining the random food stuffs we have on hand into something edible. You might think us “by the book” type of people to have come up with a website full of hundreds of recipes. But we’re those tweaking, not-measuring type of people who love the challenge of a Chopped-style refrigerator night. So as you might suspect, this beet and apple salad comes from just that: a night standing in front of the refrigerator door. Keep reading for the beet and apple salad recipe!

Related:25 Best Salad Recipes

Making beet and apple salad

We have to remind ourselves that simple, tasty recipe-like “ideas” are just as necessary to share here as polished, beautiful ones. This beet and apple salad idea came about after a trip to our local farmer’s market, where I came back loaded with beets, apples, and salad greens and no idea what to do with them. First we decided to make pink hummus, roasting the beets and pureeing them with chickpeas into pink fluff! With a few leftover roasted beets, I also noticed some leftover honey mustard dressing in the refrigerator from this recipe. So I hatched an idea to combine them with the apples and greens into a salad. The flavors and textures worked so well together that we had to share the beet and apple salad recipe here.

How to cook beets

How many beet fans are out there? I used to avoid them, but now I love the mildly sweet flavor and tender texture. They’re actually even delicious raw, if you slice them thinly and add a little salt. How to cook beets? Our favorite way is to roast them in a hot oven. It’s easy to roast up a bunch of beets at once and then use them throughout the week in salads and hummus. This beet and blue cheese salad is another favorite of ours.

To roast the beets, wrap each one separately in aluminum foil and place them in a baking dish. Then roast them at 400F for about 1 hour until they are tender. Wait for them to cool, then slip off the beet skins and enjoy! You also can cook beets in an Instant Pot or boil them.

Let us know if you try out this beet and apple salad and what you think!

Looking for beet recipes?

Outside of this beet and apple salad, here are a few more beet recipes on A Couple Cooks:

This beet and apple salad is…

Vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free and plant-based. For vegan, substitute maple syrup for honey.