We love this idea from Ardor Restaurant, located in the West Hollywood Edition hotel in Los Angeles.

This vegetable-forward restaurant uses organic ingredients, prepared simply but (as you can tell from the photo), impressively.

We’d also like to give a shout out to Chef John Fraser, a California native whose cuisine enthralled us when he helmed restaurants in New York City.

Here’s our copycat recipe of his beet “rose.”
 
 
RECIPE: ROASTED BEET ROSE SALAD

Chef Fraser serves this beet “rose” with whipped feta cheese and rose water. We used whipped goat cheese and basil olive oil.

You can substitute hummus or Greek yogurt spread.

The goat cheese or feta spreads are delicious on vegetable sandwiches (especially tomato and basil), crackers, atop baked potatoes, and most anything.

To roast the beets, we used this recipe from Ina Garten.

Ingredients

 
For The Salad

 
Preparation

You can roast the beets and/or make the whipped goat cheese a day in advance.

1. ROAST the beets and cool. Set aside.

2. MAKE the goat cheese spread. Mince the garlic and add it with the rest of the ingredients, except the chives, to a food processor.

3. PULSE until completely combined. Stir in the chives. Set aside.

[1] Beet rose salad, inspired by Ardor Restaurant (photo © Ardor | Los Angeles)

[2] For this special salad, look for special greens (photo of mizuna mix © Good Eggs).

[3] Herbed goat cheese (photo © iGourmet).

5. PLACE the whipped goat cheese into a serving dish or ramekin.

6. TOSS the salad very lightly with the vinaigrette and mound onto the center of a large plate or small platter.

7. MAKE an opening in the center of the salad and arrange the beets into “rose petals.” Start with the center petals and work out. If you have extra chives (cut or uncut), place them in the very middle, where the stamens would be.

8. DRIZZLE the beets with a small amount of basil, lemon or orange olive oil. Serve.