Beet-and-Orange Salad with Spiced Pecans Recipe

Chef and cookbook author Virginia Willis created this colorful salad. Each bite is a delicious marriage of flavors—sweet, savory, salty, and tangy. For this bright, beautiful salad, use ready-to-eat peeled and steamed beets (which cut the cook time down to just 15 minutes), or roast your own. You can use red or golden beets in this recipe, although we like the color contrast of red beets against the orange citrus. You can find many types of beets in the markets today: red, golden, Chioggia beets with their distinctive white-and-red interior circles, and baby ones the size of walnuts. When buying beets, look for healthy leaves that are vibrant, green, and not wilted. If possible, purchase beets with the leaves and stems on, but if you buy them without, make sure the beets are firm and have no soft spots or bruises. When cutting the oranges into segments, be sure to squeeze any remaining juice from the membranes, which will give the salad dressing an extra boost of sunny flavor.