The Experimental Alchemist: Roasted Beet Salad with Fried Millet Cakes and Roasted Chicken

Here's another complex salad! I have been having the most fun cooking these lately. I love making all the different components, and then putting them all together into one, huge, entree-sized salad. This one, in particular, was really filling, and the ingredients combined beautifully.
This salad was inspired by this recipe, but, of course, I gave it my own spin!

Salad Components:

1. baby mixed salad greens (I bought a big box of these), though you could use any salad greens you like
2. Marinated Tomato Salad
3. Roasted Beet Slices (and sauteed beet greens if you get beets with the leaves still attached!)
4. Fried Millet Fritters
5. Roasted and Shredded Chicken

Marinated Tomato Salad
makes about 1 1/2 cups

I absolutely love this and want to put it on everything! I was able to find some super ripe, super juicy, almost burgundy, heirloom tomatoes which were amazing. But any good, ripe tomato will be fantastic!

1 large tomato
1 TB capers
1 TB kalamata or black olives, minced
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1-2 TB balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup (or more) good quality olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Chop tomato into bite-sized chunks and place in a bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir well. Marinate at least 1 hour.

This will be super juicy! You can strain out the tomatoes, olives, and capers and use as a salad garnish. You can then use the delicious juice as salad dressing!

Roasted Beets
makes about 1 cup sliced beets

4-5 medium beets
optional: salt to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Wash beets well. Trim off both ends. Wrap in aluminum foil and bake in oven for about 45 mins or until a butter knife will easily go through them.

2. Let beets cool. Peel off skin of beets. Slice into rounds.

3. Eat immediately or refrigerate. Great as salad garnish.

Fried Millet Fritters
makes about 6 medium fritters

I used millet in my fritters because I was trying to use up what I had in my pantry. This is the only recipe, so far, that I've liked with millet it in. If you don't have millet, you can also use couscous, or even quinoa, though each will have different cooking times.

1/2 cup millet
1 cup water
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped green onion
more salt and pepper as needed
2 eggs*
oil for frying (I used coconut)
Optional: chopped cilantro or parsley

1. In a dry pot, roast millet on medium high heat until it starts to pop and turn golden brown. Shake the pan continuously to avoid burning. (A lot like making popcorn!)

2. When the millet is ready, pour in water and salt. Beware hot water splashes as it goes into the pot!
3. Cover pot, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer millet about 15 mins or until most of the water is absorbed.
4. Turn off heat and let millet sit for about 10-15 mins. Uncover and spread out on baking sheet or flat plate. This will help the millet cool quickly for fritter preparation. Cool about 15 mins.

5. Pour cooked millet into a bowl and add green onion, and more salt and pepper as necessary.
6. Add 2 eggs to the mix (*actually, the recipe only called for 1 egg, but my mixture seemed too loose to fry, so add 2 eggs if needed), and stir until well combined.

7. Heat a frying pan on medium high heat (I used the one I fried my chicken in!) with enough oil to coat the bottom. When the oil gets shimmery and pulls away from the pan, add in millet mix 1/4 cup at a time. Tamp down the top of the fritter until it is about 1/2 inch thick. It will fry more evenly this way. I was able to fit 3 fritters per pan, so I had to make 2 batches.

8. Fry fritters until they are golden brown on both sides. This should take about 2 minutes or less per side.
9. Drain fritters on paper towels.
10. Serve immediately or keep warm in warm oven (170F) until ready to eat.

Roasted Chicken Legs

This is how I make chicken all the time. You can use any cut of chicken, but I recommend getting chicken with the skin on because that protects the meat when you sear it and it gets nice and crispy. If you get chicken without skin, you can skip the searing part, and simply bake it for about 30 minutes or until done.

2 chicken legs, thighs and skin on
salt and pepper to taste
oil for frying

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Prepare a baking dish or pan to put the chicken on once it is seared.
2. Heat frying pan on medium high heat and add in enough oil to coat the bottom. Salt and pepper chicken well. When the oil is shimmery, add in chicken legs, skin side down. When the skin is nicely golden brown, turn over and cook for about 2 more minutes.