MENUMENTAL: Beets and grapefruit meet in colourful salad

MENUMENTAL: Beets and grapefruit meet in colourful salad. Roasted beet salad with pink grapefruit, goat cheese and pepitas. Staff photo/ERIC VELLEND

And like any nice Jewish boy from Forest Hill, I couldn't imagine eating gefilte fish without horseradish stained red with beet juice.

Beets have become exponentially more popular in the past five years and why not? They're cheap, sweet, delicious, colourful, grown locally and store well all winter.

Despite the rainbow of new beets on the market, I'm still partial to the good, old-fashioned red beet. It has an earthiness and intensity of flavour that is missing from varieties such as golden and Chioggia.

I've experimented with a number of cooking methods over the years and now stick with wrapping them in foil and roasting them in the oven. This method steams them without leeching out too much flavour. If you have a sizeable toaster oven, use it to save on electricity and reduce heating up your house in summer.

Since beets are soft and sweet, it's nice to pair them with something tangy (grapefruit and goat cheese) and crunchy (pepitas, which are husked pumpkin seeds). Other good combinations include feta, dill and walnuts; pecorino and pine nuts; and blue cheese and almonds.

This salad is adapted from Andrew Carmellini's excellent cookbook, Urban Italian (Bloomsbury USA, 2008).

Roasted beet salad with pink grapefruit, goat cheese and pepitas

Makes 4 servings.

4 medium beets (about 6 oz each, trimmed weight)

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 small shallot, minced

5 oz washed baby arugula

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 pink grapefruit, peeled, segmented

4 oz goat cheese, crumbled

1/4 cup pepitas (husked pumpkin seeds), toasted, salted

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat oven to 375 F.

If beets still have their greens attached, trim leaving one-inch of stem. Thoroughly wash beets and place in the centre of a large piece of aluminium foil. Drizzle with olive oil. Wrap tightly and place on a baking tray.

Bake on the middle shelf until a paring knife inserted in the centres meets with little resistance, about 90 minutes. Remove beets from foil and cool.

Trim and discard stems and root ends. Peel beets by rubbing the skins off with your fingers.

Cut beets into wedges and toss with red wine vinegar, shallot, salt and pepper. The beets can be made up to four days in advance and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Lay out four large dinner plates. In mixing bowl, toss arugula with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper. Arrange a bed on each plate. Top arugula with beets, grapefruit, goat cheese and pepitas.

Serve.