Roasted Root Vegetable Salad with Sorghum Candied Bacon (Appalachian style)

It looks like a sunset and eats like a dream. This roasted root vegetable salad is the stuff my (foodie) dreams really are made of, admittedly, as it’s just so delicious and wonderfully simple to prepare. No fuss, no extraneous ingredients – nothing that shouldn’t be there. And she’s GORGEOUS, isn’t she? Just glowing orbs of roasted red and yellow beets, peppery radishes, and sweet carrots laced with raw punchy red onion. The real thread that ties it all together, though, is the sorghum candied bacon.

Read on for more about this special recipe, and if you like the looks of my southern root vegetable salad, you might also want to check out this Appalachian Fried Potatoes recipe or my favorite soup beans. A slice of warm apple quick bread would be so perfect, sidled up alongside a gleaming plate of this salad as well, as would a bowl of tater soup, me thinks …

Why We Really Love this Roasted Root Vegetable Salad

I sort of waxed on about this above (got ahead of/couldn’t help myself), but to double down on my love for it for just a sec, I’ll also point out the fact that it is highly congenial in nature, as it gets along quite nicely with pretty much anything. Because it’s got bacon going on, it serves as a great lunch. That bit of protein and fat will keep you from being hungry again right away.

I think it looks really lovely when it’s all plated up like this on a flat dish, each little part getting its own bit of stage and limelight for showing off. You could serve it in a big bowl, I suppose, but I highly recommend busting out a lovely plate or platter and then dripping the simple vinaigrette down over everything.

As it sits for a few minutes, the natural juices from the beets will mingle a little bit with the dressing (thanks to an assist from the salt) and create this fetching abstract art situation right on the plate. It’s just pretty, that’s all.

Lastly, I love a beet. I know some people (ahem, my husband) who absolutely and definitely do not. That’s fine – more for the rest of us, I suppose. The earthy sweetness they boast, coupled with their tender interiors and beautiful colors makes them such a great ingredient. I use them as a trick ingredient in lots of things, as they lend such color to everything they touch. They shine ever so brightly in presentations like this one, where they take top billing and center stage.

What is Sorghum syrup?

I love the stuff so much that I’ve dedicated an entire post to it. It’s a really cool ingredient – my favorite natural sweetener (sorry honey, you’ve been usurped. U-syruped?) – and worth learning just a little about so you can fully appreciate it when you’re using it. It tastes like molasses and maple syrup had a love child and named her sorghum, if you’re wondering about that.

In short, the grass of the sorghum plant has stalks that are quite sweet, boasting a high sugar content that lends itself wonderfully to a sticky-sweet syrup. You’ll find jugs and jars of this tawny brown syrup all over the central and Southern Appalachian region – particularly in Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

I’ve shared a candied bacon recipe in my first Appalachian cookbook – Smoke, Roots, Mountain Harvest, and my version here is quite similar, but rather than just candy the slices in brown sugar, we’ll lacquer them in sorghum syrup. It’s just unbelievably good.

Roasted Root Vegetable Salad Ingredient Notes

The Beets

I used one bunch of red beets and one bunch of golden beets for this roasted root vegetable salad recipe – the one I photographed for you here. But you can and should use whatever kind you find and love. Honestly you could even throw a pickled beet or two in there and that would be DELICIOUS. Be sure to roast them until they’re nice and form tender, easily sliced with no resistance. They’re not as sweet and pleasant to eat when they still have a bite, I don’t think. They take a full hour, typically, to get to this point.

The Radishes

I used a couple of bunches of Easter Egg Radishes here (got them at Whole Foods, who always carries them) because the color is just to die for. I love them so much and am happy to use them whenever I can. That said, regular ole’ red radishes are pretty great as well. So, radish as you please here, friend.

The Carrots

Any will do – most especially rainbow carrots, if you can find them. For this shoot, I just used large whole carrots because it’s what I had. Anything goes, though! Just be sure to cut them into bite-sized pieces. To me, that usually means something rond 1/2″ to 3/4″.

The Sorghum

Tasting something like a happy blend of molasses and maple syrup, sorghum syrup is liquid gold to me. It’s admittedly not super easy to find everywhere, but it’s worth ordering and that’s easy as pie to do, of course. I now live in the PNW where it’s basically not available anywhere. So, I order it from back East or smuggle jugs of it from family member’s who actually get it from local farmers back in Kentucky.

You can absolutely swap in honey, maple syrup, or a blend of the two (since that’s what sorghum tastes like) if you like. You’ll wind up with a great result in the end, all the same.

The Bacon

This is a choose your own adventure situation. Any kind is fine. I do ask you to bake yours on large sheet pans that we’ll cover in either parchment paper or foil, as this helps with cleanup and sticking. Also, since the bacon will be coated in what is essentially a sugar syrup, I’ll have you lay a piece of foil loosely over the bacon for the first 8-ish minutes of baking, as this will help protect the strips from scorching.

The Onion

Red please, because it’s almost spicy and it looks so lovely. But go ahead and use another kind, if you’ve got it around. And if it’s ramps season … then of course that’s the move.

The Dressing

This is a simple three-ingredient vinaigrette, as that’s all this roasted root vegetable salad needs. It wants a hit of acid to awaken the earth tones of those beets, and to complement the spice of the radishes. Apple cider vinegar is actually my “house vinegar” and that’s what I call for – but use what you like. Olive oil or your favorite salad oil is fine as well. A teaspoon of that sorghum syrup will round things out perfectly.

How to make my roasted root vegetable salad

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Adjust a rack to the top third position in the oven, and one in the center.
2. Wrap the beets up in foil, creating a little packet and ensuring they’re completely covered. Roast them on the center rack until they’re totally fork tender, about 1 hour.
3. Put the radishes on one side of a large sheet pan and the carrots on the other side. Drizzle with olive oil to coat and season with salt and pepper. Roast on the center rack until tender and lightly caramelized, about 22 to 25 minutes. If the radishes are done first, go ahead and remove them if you like.
4. Cover a second large sheet pan with foil or parchment paper and lay the bacon slices on the pan in an even layer. Brush/coat each slice with sorghum syrup, from end to end, and then season them with lots (I mean, lots) of freshly cracked pepper.
5. Lay a piece of foil loosely over the pan (prevents too much browning) and roast the bacon on the highest rack for 8 minutes. Remove the foil and let the bacon finish cooking, keeping an eye out for over-browning (the foil really helps with this, if needed).
6. Allow your beets to cool until easily handled, and pull or slice the skins off. Cut the beets into quarters or bite-sized pieces.
7. Arrange the beets, carrots, and radishes on a large plate or platter and scatter the sliced red onion over top. Break off or cut the candied bacon into pieces and tuck them in all over the salad.
8. Make the dressing by whisking together the four ingredients and adjusting things to taste. Drizzle this all over the salad and season with a little salt over top, if you like. Enjoy!

Ways to serve this roasted root vegetable salad

• I honestly had the leftover this morning for breakfast with two over easy eggs on top and it was fantastic. The bacon obviously was ready for those eggs … worked so very well.
• If you want, you could also add some leafy greens to the situation here, to bulk it up a bit.
• Vegetarian? Freel free to omit the bacon and instead, season the carrots and radishes with a little smoked paprika before roasting. That will bring the smoke.
• Maybe you’re the opposite of a vegetarian and you want MORE meat. If so, maybe serve this under a lovely roasted chicken, like this grape-laden one that is just waiting to welcome some lovely root veggies to the situation.
• Want it a little spicy? Add some cayenne or crushed chili flakes to the dressing.

Print