Mix Together a Roast Beet and Green Bean Salad

This beet and green bean salad is one of those salads that sets a table ablaze in color, making everything else you serve with it look better in the process. It's also one of those salads that gets better with time, making it a perfect make-ahead dish for a summer potluck.

By letting the beets and onions soak in the acidic dressing, the pigments in the beets and onions turn a more vibrant red. The green beans on the other hand will tend to discolor by soaking in the dressing, which is why it's better to mix them in at the end.

With tender, crunchy, crispy and creamy textures, the salad is as fun to eat as it is gorgeous, and the combination of celery seeds and flat-leaf parsley lends a marvelous herbal flavor that keeps it from being too heavy.

While you can buy cooked beets at most grocery stores these days, if you can't find them, just trim the stems off some raw beets, wrap them in aluminum foil and roast them in a 375 degree Fahrenheit oven until you can easily stick a fork through them (about 1 hour for a medium sized beet). Then, let them cool enough to handle and you should be able to easily peel the skin off in strips from top to bottom.