Warm Roasted Beet Salad

January 2026. The newsletter preparation is underway. I am writing the first three issues of Dashi in advance — building a buffer, the way a cook builds a mise en place before service: everything prepped, everything portioned, everything ready so that when the moment comes, the cooking is smooth and the service is seamless and the audience sees only the food, not the preparation.

The first three issues: one about miso soup at three AM (the origin story, revisited for the newsletter's origin). One about the chipped bowl (the object as archive, the bowl as biography). One about the panic attack at Trader Joe's (the rawness that the blog approached but the newsletter will deliver without apology). The three issues are the foundation. The foundation is the Dashi. The Dashi is the foundation. The circularity is intentional.

I made Fumiko's nimono — simmered vegetables, the winter comfort — and the making was the writing and the writing was the making and the two are indistinguishable now, eleven years into the practice, the cooking and the writing the same act performed with different instruments: one uses a pen, the other uses a pot, both produce the same thing: nourishment. One nourishes the mind. The other nourishes the body. Both nourish the soul, if the soul is the place where food and words meet, which it is, which it has always been, which is the Dashi.

Miya asked to read the newsletter drafts. I let her. She read all three and said: "Mama, this one about the bowl is the best. You should start with that one." The editorial advice of a nine-year-old. I am going to follow it. The bowl issue first. The three-AM issue second. The panic-attack issue third. The nine-year-old is a better editor than the thirty-nine-year-old ever was, because the nine-year-old reads with the heart and the thirty-nine-year-old reads with the anxiety, and the heart is always a better editor.

Nimono is technically a simmered dish — Fumiko’s version, specifically — but what I was really making that January was an act of rootedness, of returning to something slow and warm when everything else was about building and buffering and preparing. This roasted beet salad isn’t nimono, not exactly, but it carries the same spirit: earthy root vegetables softened by heat, made warm and yielding and ready to receive you. When Miya said the bowl essay was the best, I thought about what makes a bowl a bowl — the depth, the color, the way beets bleed that particular deep red into everything around them — and I went back to the kitchen and made this.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr | Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 medium beets (about 1 1/2 lbs), scrubbed and trimmed
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 cups arugula or mixed greens
1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese or feta
2 tablespoons toasted walnuts or pecans
2 tablespoons thinly sliced red onion

Instructions

Roast the beets. Preheat oven to 400°F. Wrap each beet individually in foil, drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet and roast for 40–45 minutes, until a knife slides through the center without resistance.
Cool and peel. Allow beets to rest in foil for 10 minutes. Once cool enough to handle, rub the skins off with a paper towel or gentle pressure — they should slip away easily. Cut beets into wedges or 1/2-inch rounds.
Make the dressing. Whisk together the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey, and Dijon mustard in a small bowl until emulsified. Taste and adjust salt as needed.
Assemble warm. Arrange greens on a platter or divide among bowls. Place the still-warm beet pieces over the greens — the warmth will gently wilt the edges. Scatter red onion, walnuts, and crumbled cheese over the top.
Dress and serve. Drizzle the balsamic dressing over everything just before serving. Eat while the beets are still warm and the cheese is beginning to soften.

Nutrition (per serving)

Warm Roasted Beet Salad — The Foundation, The Dashi, The Bowl