This colorful Halloween salad has only 6 main ingredients and looks so enchanting! With a perfect mix of massaged kale, radicchio, bright roasted beets, fresh cucumber, and blackberries, this seasonal side dish will make any Halloween dinner party hauntingly elegant.
Halloween Roasted Beet Salad
This salad perfectly balances bitter, sweet, and earthy Autumn flavors, especially when drizzled with my apple cider vinaigrette! I’m lucky that I can find yellow and orange beets at my nearby farmer’s market, they look so bright and beautiful. But red beets with look equally seasonal – maybe just a little more gothically romantic.
I made this salad for my husband’s Halloween birthday dinner party. I love that he has an October birthday. It gives me a great excuse to put together a fiendishly glamorous Halloween menu! Every ingredient makes my witchy heart glow!
I served butternut squash and mushroom crostini for an appetizer and then served this salad with red wine braised short ribs for dinner, baked pumpkin rice with zucchini, spooky little lychee eyeball cocktails, perfectly roasted autumn veggies, and pumpkin spiced carrot cupcakes for dessert!
The Simple Process
- First, we’ll slice and roast beets, then let them cool in the refrigerator.
- Next, we’ll give kale a luxurious massage to make it softer.
- Then, we’ll slice radicchio, shallot, and cucumber.
- Finally, we’ll add everything to a serving bowl, pop blackberries on top, and drizzle with our dressing of choice.
Ingredient Notes
beets – If you can orange, yellow, and/or red striped beets, these look so pretty in a Halloween salad. You can find them at farmer’s markets and specialty veggie shops in the end of September and October. If you can’t find them, though, feel free to use red beets.
kale – I love a dark kale for this salad like red ursa or red chidori. It makes it look rich and a little dramatic, but you can use any kale you wish. Just be sure to remove the leaves from the stems, and rip them into smaller pieces.
shallots – You can also use very thinly sliced red onion
blackberries – You can use whole blackberries or slice them in half.
How to Properly Slice Radicchio
This salad looks prettiest when the radicchio is sliced into thin, wispy strips. Here’s how to slice it perfectly:
1. First, remove the outer leaf or leaves, if they’re at all discolored.
2. Slice radicchio in half.
3. Remove the core by cutting a triangular slice around it, and remove.
4. Turn it over, and lay the radicchio flat with the bottom closest to you (where the core used to be). Slice from left to right, or right to left, into thin strips.
How to Make This Halloween Salad – Step-by-Step
1. Preheat oven to 400 F. (200 C.). Peel and slice 8 small-medium beets into quarters. Remove any long stringy ends.
2. In a mixing bowl, stir beets with 1 tbsp. olive oil, a liberal sprinkle of salt, and a liberal sprinkle of fresh ground pepper.Empty onto a foil-lined baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes. Refrigerate them for at least 20 minutes once done.
3. While beets cool, slice 1 shallot into thin rings.
4. Slice 1 cucumber (about 8 ounces sliced) into small pieces.
5. Slice ½ radicchio into thin strips.
6. Remove leaves from 1 large bunch of kale stems. Rip into easily edible pieces and discard stems.
7. Add kale to a mixing bowl. Add 1 tbsp. olive oil. Gently massage kale leaves until they’re a bit softer.
8. Add sliced radicchio, sliced cucumbers, cooled beets, sliced shallots, and blackberries to the kale in a salad bowl. Drizzle with apple cider vinaigrette dressing or your dressing of choice.
Other Tasty Additions
This salad is delicious and gorgeous all on its own, but if you want to add a few more accouterments, here are a few tasty additions:
- crumbled blue cheese, gorgonzola, or feta
- pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
- dried Cranberries
- shaved almonds
- crushed walnuts
- yellow cherry tomatoes
- seared asparagus
- cooked farro
- cooked, diced butternut squash
- sprouts
- shredded carrot
Common Questions
If you’ve met kale before, you’ve noticed it’s pretty stiff, especially when it’s very fresh. Massaging kale breaks up the fibrous texture and makes it easier to chew and digest.
The salad ingredients can be combined, without dressing, at least 4 hours before serving, as long as the bowl is covered with cellophane. Dress just before serving.
Apart from my homemade apple cider vinaigrette, I really love Bragg’s Ginger Sesame dressing. I would stick to non-creamy dressings so keep the salad looking pretty and colorful.
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Halloween Roasted Beet Salad
Equipment
- 1 cutting board & sharp knife
- 1 medium mixing bowl
- 1 foil-lined baking sheet
Ingredients
- 1 large kale bunch
- 8 medium beets – preferably yellow or red-striped
- 2 small shallots
- 1 cucumber
- ½ radicchio
- 2 tbsp. olive oil – divided
- salt & fresh ground pepper – a liberal sprinkle
- apple cider vinaigrette – (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F. (200 C.). Peel and slice 8 small-medium beets into quarters. Remove any long stringy ends.
- In a mixing bowl, stir beets with 1 tbsp. olive oil, a liberal sprinkle of salt and a liberal sprinkle of fresh ground pepper. Empty onto a foil-lined baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes. Refrigerate them for at least 20 minutes once done.
- While beets cool, slice 2 shallots into thin rings. Slice 1 cucumber (about 8 ounces sliced) into small pieces. Slice ½ radicchio into thin strips. Remove leaves from 1 large bunch kale stems. Rip into easily edible pieces and discard stems.
- Add kale to a mixing bowl. Add 1 tbsp. olive oil. Gently massage kale leaves until they’re a bit softer. Add sliced radicchio, sliced cucumbers, cooled beets, sliced shallots, and blackberries to the kale in a salad bowl. Drizzle with apple cider vinaigrette dressing, or your dressing of choice.
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