Fans Love Giada De Laurentiis' Anti-Inflammatory Roasted Beet Salad That's Perfect for Spring

Spring is a major transition season, especially in the kitchen. Warm days will have you craving bright and fresh summer salads, then leave you disappointed when you remember that it's not actually tomato season yet. Luckily, there are tons of delicious salads that focus on seasonal spring fruits and veggies—we're partial to our Avocado Tuna Spinach Salad and Spring Pea Salad with Strawberries, for instance.

Giada De Laurentiis has a few spring options as well, including a recipe for Beet, Olive and Kale Salad that would make any beet-lover's mouth drop. The chef's blog, Giadzy, shared the recipe on Instagram this week, and we couldn't help but agree with the folks fawning over the "yummy" recipe in the comments.

To make this salad an easy lunch to put together, Giada suggests meal-prepping the roasted beets and keeping them in reusable containers in your fridge. Her recipe for the roasted beets is simple, so you could easily pop them into the oven after dinner on Sunday and dole out lunch salads for yourself during the week.

For the beets, you'll need around 6 medium beets of any color, trimmed and scrubbed, plus fresh garlic, fresh thyme, fresh rosemary, extra-virgin olive oil and a little salt. In a makeshift foil packet, roast the beets whole with the garlic and herbs, drizzling the oil and salt on before they go into the oven. The beets should be done after 1 1/2 hours roasting at 350°F, but check their tenderness by piercing them with the tip of your knife. Once they've cooled, rub the skin off with a paper towel and cut the beets into bite-size pieces, then store them for later.

You may also want to prepare the salad's dressing ahead of time, too. For the citrusy drizzle, you'll need an orange, apple-cider vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil and salt. Combine the zest of the orange with about 2 tablespoons of its juice in a bowl. (You'll also use this orange to add orange segments to your salad, so don't feel the need to over-squeeze—whatever juice remains behind will still end up in your salad.) Add the rest of the dressing ingredients and whisk until combined.

When you're ready to put together your salad, add some dressing and some beets into your bowl and toss to coat. Lightly massage some thinly sliced kale and add it to the bowl as well, along with feta, Castelvetrano olives and the orange segments. Toss everything together and top with a sprinkle of peeled, toasted hazelnuts. If you don't have feta on hand, you could use goat cheese in its place.The resulting salad will be a riot of color that serves about six—or serves one, if you decide to divvy the salad up for lunch during the week.

Anti-inflammatory ingredients are an added bonus of this quick, fresh meal. Dark leafy kale, beets, olive oil, herbs, citrus and nuts all work to make this salad nutrient- and antioxidant-dense and packed full of flavor. Beets can be an especially healthy, anti-inflammatory veggie to add to your plate—they're high in betalains, antioxidants known to fight cancer, and they've been tied to improved heart health and athletic performance. Roasted beet recipes like this salad (or even cozy side dishes like our Melting Beets with Ricotta) help retain the veggie's colorful nutrients, so you'll get more out of every bite.

Even folks who aren't won over by the idea of roasted beets in a salad may want to find some way to incorporate the pretty root veg into their meal routines, maybe with an easy batch of Sheet-Pan Shrimp & Beets or a colorful Beet-Infused Gin & Tonic. However you get your beet on, adding more inflammation-fighting foods to your day is always a good idea.