Pineapple, Beet, and Mustard Green Salad with Pineapple Lime Vinaigrette
A few weeks ago I spent a glorious week to Alcapulco, Mexico soaking in the sun, diving deeper into media communications, and eating copious amounts of delicious food. Each meal we had was esquisitely prepared which always had me looking forward to the next. My favorite salad of the week was a pineapple and beet salad with arugula. This recipe will play homage to that glorious salad.
Pineapple, beets, and lime. They sit on the bed of mustard greens which gives sharpness to round out the sweetness. It’s the perfect quartet to bridge the gap between winter and spring.
Heads up. The vinaigrette is definitely more lime than pineapple but lime pineapple doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.
Pineapple Lime Vinaigrette Ingredients
2 c pineapple juice
1.5 tsp lime zest
½ c lime juice (have 6 limes)
¼ c red wine vinegar
½ c grapeseed oil
1/8 tsp salt
Pineapple Lime Vinaigrette Directions
Put the pineapple juice in a saucepan and simmer it down to ¼. I know that’s a hard measurement to eyeball so wait until it thickens into a syrup consistency (it will thicken more as it cools). You want to end up with ½ c of pineapple syrup. You can eyeball it or pour it into a measuring cup. If it has too much juice, put it back in the pot and simmer away. If you simmered too much liquid out of it, just add water to reach ½ c. Allow it to cool.
Apply downward pressure on the limes with the palm of your hand and roll back and forth. You should feel the peel give and get a little squishier. Use a zester or small holes of a box grater to remove the lime zest. Get 1.5 tsp of zest. If you’re using a box grater, make sure you only grate the green part because the white pith is bitter.
Cut the lime in half around the equator. Stick a fork in it and squeeze out the juice. You’ll need ½ c. Pour the juice into a glass jar with a tight fitting lid. Add the zest, vinegar, oil, salt, and pineapple syrup. Screw on the lid and shake shake shake. Taste. Adjust the ingredients as needed.
Pineapple, Beet, and Mustard Green Salad Ingredients (per serving)
1 c beets (about 1 small/medium beet)
2 Tbl water
1 c fresh pineapple (1 pineapple on hand)
1.5 c mustard greens
3 Tbl roasted pecans (see recipe)
3 Tbl pineapple lime vinaigrette
Pineapple, Beet, and Mustard Green Salad Directions
Wash the beets well. Put them in a Pyrex and poke them a few times with a sharp knife and add 2 Tbl water. Cover the dish tightly with foil and pop it in the oven at 350 degrees. The time will vary a ton based on the size and freshness of the beets. Start checking them about 10 minutes after you start to smell them. Poke a beet with the tip of a knife. If it easily glides in, it is done. For smaller beets, you’ll begin to smell them after 30 minutes or so. But please use other indicators of doneness.
Use a sharp knife and slice off the bottom of the pineapple and do the same to the top. Turn it upright and slice downward in strips to remove the skin. It’s a balance between removing not enough skin and having hard parts and removing too much where you’re wasting flesh. You’ll get the feel for it.
Then slice downward on the exterior of the core to remove the flesh. Pineapple core is a bit tricker because there’s not often a hard line that tells you where to cut. But if you look closely, you’ll see a color and texture variance and a faint circle. The core is harder and lacks flavor. Take the pineapple planks and cut into strips and then crosswise. The size is up to you but keep it bite-size.
When the beets are finished cooking, leave them covered in the Pyrex so they don’t cool too quickly. Remove one at a time. With a sharp knife, slice off the two ends. If it’s too hot for you to handle, you can hold it using a paper towel. Stand the beet on end and slice off the peel in downward motion. It’s far easier to peel when the beet is hot. Cut into round slices, than into bit-size chunks.
Wash the mustard. Tear the leafy part vertically against the stem. Reserve the stem for another use or compost it. Tear the leaf into bite-size pieces. Add a hefty 1.5 c of greens to a large plate. Add the dressing and mix with your hands to evenly coat the greens. Squeeze the leaves between your fingers. This is the same thing you do with kale to make the leaves more tender. Layer it with 1 c of beets, 1 c of pineapple and sprinkle with 3 Tbl of pecans.
Notes
The main changes I made was roasting the beets in place of raw ones. They had the beets in raw match sticks, but raw beets are hard to cut. You can of course grate them through a box grater which is a bit easier. There’s something about the depths of flavor roasting beets gives that I love so I went that route.
I had a really hard time identifying the dressing that was on the OG. It was extremely light and played in the background. Pineapple was such a bold flavor in the salad so I decided to play up that flavor and create vinaigrette that would capture it.
Fresh pineapple is very sweet and pineapple juice especially after concentrated is extremely sweet. The lime zest and vinegar will balance out the sweetness.
I’m really bad at choosing juicy limes. I always buy extra limes to alleviate the stress of not having enough juice. Even if you run out of lime juice, you’ll still have the lime zest which accounts for most of the liminess. Just sub in lemon juice for the remainder.
You can use golden beets if you like. They are usually milder in flavor.
I love the sharpness the raw mustard brings to this salad. I also love the “spring green” of this green. I think kale will be a bit too strong in this dish, but arugula would work really well. Spinach is really mild, but would also work really well.
