Beet layer cake salad

Get: red beets, fresh goat cheese spinach walnuts dried cranberries oil+vinegar Do: beets: rinse beets and boil in water, covered, until soft (50-60 minutes) peel beets under cool water (skin should come off with pressure, no tools required) slice thinly (2-4mm) spread out on cutting board or plate and chill (freezer for 10 mins or similar) sort slices by size, so that similar sizes are together whip goat cheese with milk or cream to make it more spreadable. add some red beet water to the goat cheese to make it pink once chilled, spread goat cheese onto a slice of beet press a slice of beat on top repeat to make 2 layers of cheese and 3 layers of beet with a sharpened, wet chef's knife, slice the stack into sixths and lay on its side salad: rinse and dry spinach leaves into a salad bowl add crushed walnuts and dried cranberries in a separate sealable container (tupperware) combine oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper, and shake very vigorously until emulsified toss spinach with dressing plate salad, nestle stack quarters onto plate or into bowl serve chilled notes slicing with a wet knife worked better than with a dry knife slice through, then push out the stack away from the face of the knife. Don't slide the knife out because it will smear more. cutting in sixths is more difficult, but if you cut wedges it makes them lay flat like little cake slices which is cute too many layers only works for huge beets. as little as 3-beet-2-cheese is fine. red beets bleed like crazy, so if you're not using golden beets, may as well dye the cheese pink. the red beet color bled into the cheese, which i assume was mainly because they were pickled. Would look better with only gold beets. Pickled is not as delicious as fresh. i sliced the gold beets to match the red pre-sliced, but it might have been better if i had sliced more thinly a bowl might present better than a plate