Roasted Beet Salad with Caraway Seeds, Cloves, and Horseradish

A colleague of mine brought a whole basket full of delicious, fresh beets to work last week and I helped myself to several large ones. I thought a while about how to creatively cook them, and settled on this German-style salad.

First I pierced the beets with a fork and wrapped them individually in aluminum foil. After roasting them for an hour and a half or so (beets vary in size so you just have to roast until they're tender), I peeled and sliced them.

Then, I dressed them in a vinaigrette I made that contained cider vinegar (1/4 cup), ground cloves (1/4 tsp.), caraway seeds (2 tsp.), prepared horseradish (2 tsp.), salt and pepper, and just a touch of sugar (1 tsp.) and oil (2 tbsp.).

The resulting salad was a complex mixture of sweet, spicy, and earthy flavors.