Apple salad with beet

"The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent, not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious."
Tom Robbins

Why is it that when people see beets turn the other way? They are meaty and have this earthy flavour, not to mention this ruby colour that shouts out "I am alive". I have been trying to make the little person in the house eat beets, not very successfully. When I ask why he would not even try them, he says "I don't eat red things". Maybe because he is a kid and as Tom Robbins said, they are deadly serious?

For 6 servings

• 4 medium beets, cooked and cut in medium strips
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (you might want it oilier, in that case make it ½ cup)
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons shredded orange peel
• 2 tbsp orange juice
• 1 medium red onion chopped
• a handful of non salted cashew nuts
• 2 tablespoons fresh mint or 2 teaspoons dried mint
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1 tsp pink pepper berries
• 4 cups torn romaine lettuce
• 2 medium green apples chopped

Make the dressing by combining oil, vinegar, orange peel, orange juice, onion, mint, pink pepper and honey in jar. Cover firmly and shake well.
Combine beet, romaine lettuce, cashews and chopped apple in a bowl. Add the dressing, mix everything very well and serve.