Hi I'm Jeff Buben of Vidalia Restaurant and Bistro Bis. We’re doing Vidalia on your recipes that you can make at home. Very simple recipe that we’ll going to do for you now where really the ingredients speak for themselves, and we’re going to put minimum intervention into this dish, roasted Heirloom Beet and Vidalia Onion Salad with a great sweet onion Vinaigrette.

We’re going to be using Heirloom beets these are baby beets. They are available in special stores by the bunch. We have golden beets today, two bunches of golden beets we have two bunches of red beets, and we have two bunches of candies for Chioggia beets. And we have one cup of thinly minced Vidalia onions. For the Vinaigrette, a simple vinaigrette we have one quarter of cup of honey. We have two ounces of cherry vinegar. We have four ounces of extra virgin olive oil. A little pink pepper corn we’re going to add just till we like the flavor, and a little fresh time to finish that vinaigrette.

We’ll going to take some beautiful spring greens, and we’re going to put on that on the platter, and we’re going to finish this dish with a little toasted vignette with some herbed goat cheese and very simply with the herbed goat cheese we took some fresh goat cheese, processed it in a mixer with a little fresh teragon, a little fresh parsley, a little fresh time, salt and pepper, and we’re going to spread them on the crouton when it comes out of the oven.

Okay, we’ll begin by taking our vignette. We kind of cut the vignette a little bit of advise, and we’re going to make croutons with the vignette, so they all vignette will work or a fresh vignette, and we’re going to cut that into about quarter inch to half inch slices, just a little bit on advise. We’re going to slice that down depending upon how many people you have. We’re going allow for two croutons per person to make this an on-tray, so we have a recipe for four. We’re going to do eight baguettes. We’re going to place that on a baking pan just like that. No butter and no oil just plain, and we’re going to get those nice and toasty, and we’re going to put those in a 350 degree oven cook those for about seven to eight minutes until they are golden brown.

Next, let me show you how we’re going to chop this sweet Vidalia onion. We’re just going to take the onion, make sure we take the core out of the onion. Turn it a little bit on both sides to make it nice and even, and we’re going them cut then into Julian strips. We just peel from one end all the way to the other. And what you get about halfway, just turn the onion down like that, and start again that way when you comeback at the middle you have a clean onion, and you won’t have to worry about hitting your fingers. So let’s do that again .We’re going to start at one end, and we’re going to get about half way through the onion. We’re going to turn the onion back on that side, and we’re going to start up this side of the onion again, and in the where the clings finished.

We’re going to put together our Vinaigrette which is real simple. We’re going to take two tablespoons of clover honey. Put them in the bottom of our mixing bowl. We’re going to put three tablespoons of cherry vinegar. One quarter cup of olive oil, we’re going to whisk that together just to get that honey moving in the oil and the vinegar. And you see how the kind of emulsifies that and gets it blended, nice and beautiful. Very simple like that we’re going to add some pink pepper corn. The pink pepper corn had a nice fruity flavor to it. Add a nice little color to it. Want to add the add pepper corn? A Little fresh thyme lots of fresh thyme you give this. See how they get that pink pepper corn? We have kind of eucalyptus spicy flavor that thyme with the honey and the cherry vinegar.

To that we’re going to add our one cup of minced Vidalia onions. We’re going to add our two bunches of Chioggia beets. We’re going to add two bunches of cooked red beets, and two bunches of cooked yellow beets in the bowl like that few turns of salt, few turns of fresh pepper. We’re going to toast that all together. And you can put these and let these makes us about an hour ahead of time, and let it marinate. To get all those flavors going together with the beets and the onions and the time. You can put on the refrigerator. You can make it overnight just remember to bring it out to room temperature, so you get the real, sweet, beautiful fresh flavors of those beets with the onions.

First step, we’re going to take and put the greens on the bottom of the platter. This will serve about six people. So it will take some nice beautiful spring greens we have a mixed Amazona, some radicchio or rugulla, forse lettuce, and put that on the bottom of the platter. And we’re going to take our croutons, and just spread a little bit of that goat cheese ladder on there nice and beautiful like that. We’re just kind put those croutons in the corner of the platter. One, two, three, four allow for two pieces per person. If you can have it on a tray expected we have eight pieces here. I'm just going to put that like that spread another couple, and then we’re going to be ready for the beets. Look at that, did not look great?

Now we’re going to put our beets right in the middle of the platter. Look at the colors we have golden beets, Chioggia beets, red beets, sweet Vidalia onions, a little pink pepper corn, fresh time and there we have an on-tray salad. Enjoy.