Tart kale, lemon and beet salad with champagne vinaigrette

I recently read a Macleans article about bitter flavours in cuisine, which can add refinement to dishes, but often take a backseat in our sugar-crazed society. That article was front of mind when I came up with this salad, which marries bitter kale and tart citrus with the crunch of roasted chickpeas and the slippery sweet flavour of cooked beets. This recipe serves 4 as a side dish.

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To make the beets:

Scrub two beets, then wrap in foil. Place in the oven to roast for about 1 hour. 

To make the roasted chickpeas:

This part of the recipe is the same as for this roasted sweet potato and chickpea salad. Whisk together 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, 2T apple cider vinegar, 1T honey, 1T orange juice, 1/2T Russian-style mustard, 1/2T orange zest, 1 tsp sambal oelek, 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground cardamom and 1/4 tsp salt. Drain and rinse one can of chickpeas, then toss with vinaigrette. Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet and add to oven with beets. Cook for about 40 mins, shaking the tray once through cooking.

To assemble the salad:

Once beets are done cooking, peel off the skin and dice. Wash and dry one head of kale. Cut away the coarse rib, then roughly chop. Add 2 pickled lemons, deseeded and thiny sliced, a handful of sunflower seeds and several thin slices of firm goat cheese. Add the roasted chickpeas and beets. 

To prepare the vinaigrette:

Whisk 3/4 cup of extra-virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup of champagne vinegar, 2T Dijon, 2T honey and salt and pepper to taste. Toss salad with vinaigrette about 15 minutes prior to serving.