"Beet"ing Hearts Salad with Blood Red Dressing

My husband and I are having a Halloween-themed dinner with our Dinner Club this month and I wanted to serve some cool Halloween inspired dishes to set a fun mood and most importantly, serve food that tasted good. The idea for this salad actually came to me this last summer while I cut up a head of purple Romaine lettuce. This particular head of lettuce was nearly black, it was such a deep shade of purple and it made me think of Halloween...and that was all the inspiration I needed. Originally, I wanted to include Hearts of Palm with the Artichoke Hearts and my plan was to marinate them both in a sweet pomegranate vinaigrette. The idea being that the Hearts of Palm would absorb some of the red coloring from the marinade. I planned to slice the Hearts of Palm into rounds to reveal a cool margin of red color against the white centers. In my mind, it was going to be a perfect Halloween salad. I even had fun playing around with the name of this yet unmade, but vividly imagined salad. I imagined calling it "Bloody Hearts" or "Bleeding Hearts Salad"... The picture in my mind vanished in a blink when I saw the price of a can of hearts of palm. Ouch! Not budget friendly and also hard to find. I would've had to order it online and buy a whole case. No bueno. 
Instead, I decided to add beets in lieu of the Hearts of Palm and called it, "Beet"ing Hearts Salad. A fun, little play on words. Anyhow, the final version contains purple and green lettuces, marinated artichoke hearts, beets, pumpkin seeds, pomegranate seeds and Bleu cheese crumbles all topped with a sweet blood red vinaigrette made with raspberry jam and pomegranate juice. I hope you enjoy it and have fun serving it for your Halloween festivities. 

If you 'd like to make the salad after Halloween, but feel embarrassed to call this salad by it's Halloween name, just remove the creepy nomenclature and call it, Autumn Artichoke and Beet Salad with Raspberry Pomegranate Vinaigrette. That's the fancy name. :) HAPPY HALLOWEEN!


"Beet"ing Hearts Salad with Blood Red Dressing 
(Autumn Artichoke and Beet Salad with Raspberry Pomegranate Vinaigrette)
Serves 6

2 heads of purple baby lettuces, (Red Leaf, Bibb or Romaine)
1 head of green baby lettuce 
1-12 oz. jar of marinated artichoke hearts
1- 8 oz can of fancy cut beets
1/4 cup of pomegranate seeds
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
Bleu cheese crumbles, (to taste)

Chop, wash and spin lettuces. Layer the marinated artichoke hearts and beets onto bed of lettuce. Add pomegranate and pumpkin seeds and top with crumbled Bleu cheese. When ready to serve, toss generously with Blood Red Dressing. 


Blood Red Dressing 
(Raspberry Pomegranate Vinaigrette)

1/4 cup raspberry jam
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3 T pomegranate juice
2 T honey
1 t salt
1/2 t ginger, finely grated
1/4 cup canola oil
additional salt and pepper to taste

Add first six ingredients into a mini food processor and blend well. Add the oil last and emulsify. Salt and pepper to taste.

Keep an eye out for another installment of Halloween-inspired foods with my upcoming Zombie Black Bean Hummus!