Avocado Beet Salad with Kumquat Vinaigrette

Here’s another recipe living on my Pinterest for seven months that got to surface for my dinner party with Rebecca. It was somewhat time-consuming and prep-requiring, but my brother who hates beets (a fact which I conveniently forgot when choosing the menu) actually liked this (along with everyone else) so I think it’s worth it!

– Peel and slice a bunch of beets as thin as you can (preferably with a mandolin which we didn’t have access to, but it turned out so don’t worry)
– Arrange them on a plate and cover with red wine vinegar and olive oil, and leave to set for ~10 minutes. They also say to cover with plastic wrap, which we did, but I’m not sure why…

Make the dressing:
– Combine 2tbsp white wine vinegar (although I think we actually used coconut vinegar or something like that), 2 chopped scallions, 1tbsp lemon juice, 1tbsp orange juice, and salt in a bowl and let sit for ~15 minutes

– Mash up ~4 kumquats, seeds removed (or they say you can use a mandarin orange) until it’s sort of a paste (I ended up using the food processor attachment on my immersion blender for this since the mortar-and-pestle thing wasn’t really working for me)
– They say you can add a pinch of sugar as well, but we didn’t

– Add ~3/4c olive oil and the cumquat to the dressing base and stir
– They also say to add chopped chervil, but we just did parsley
– And salt and pepper

– Drain and rinse the beets and arrange on the serving plate
– Slice up a bunch of avocado on top
– Season, dress, and serve!