If you have never had Limestone Pizza’s Warm Beet and White Bean Salad, you should rectify that immediately.

It is a beautiful winter salad that I would happily eat any time of year. It’s vibrant in taste and color, and it’s filling, so the name “salad” hardly does it justice. It’s more of a “dish.”

I went in to Limestone recently to have said salad, and it was already gone for the day. This is no surprise. If you have had the salad, you understand why it was sold out. But I was unable to sate myself with just the pizza, and continued to think about the beets all day long, until I simply had to go home and make something similar for myself.

I would never claim to have replicated Limestone’s recipe. In fact, rather than try and be disappointed, I just made up a whole new salad that I hoped would suffice in the stead of Limestone’s original.

I thought about the things that I find important, like texture, acid, sweetness and substance. I came out thinking that the best thing I could do would be make a beet panzanella, and that is just what I did.

Sweetness from apples and honey, the pucker of balsamic, earthiness of beets and spinach, the salty goodness of bacon, and crunch from sunflower seeds all appealed to me, mixed in with the heartiness of a rustic loaf. What is missing? I daresay nothing.

Rustic Beet Panzanella Salad

4 medium-sized beets
1 tablespoon olive oil
Dash of salt
3 strips bacon
3 cups baby spinach leaves
1/2 rustic baguette, cut into small cubes
2 tablespoons herbed goat cheese
1 gala apple

For the dressing
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1/8 teaspoon basil leaves
Dash of onion powder
Dash of garlic powder
Salt and pepper

Shake the dressing together in a jar with the lid screwed tightly on.

Heat the oven to 400 F. Cut the stalks off the beets and chop them into slices.

Roast them in olive oil and salt for 30 minutes. Fry the bacon and chop into small pieces.

Meanwhile, assemble the rest of your salad. Add spinach leaves, diced apple chunks, hunks of goat cheese and the bread pieces.

Top with beets, drizzle healthily with the dressing. Serve immediately.