France · Salads
Beet Cheese Salad
Beet and goat cheese salad (salade de betteraves au chèvre in French) is roasted beets, soft goat cheese and toasted walnuts on salad leaves, dressed with a honey and balsamic vinaigrette.
Ingredients
- beets (about 150 g each)4 medium
- goat cheese100 g
- walnuts, toasted and chopped30 g
- salad leaf mix80 g
- olive oil3 tbsp
- balsamic vinegar1 tbsp
- honey1 tsp
- salt and pepperto taste
Method
- 1Heat the oven to 200°C. Scrub the beets, trim the stems to about 2 cm, wrap the beets in foil (one or two per packet) and roast for 45 to 60 minutes. Medium beets of about 150 g are usually done in 50 minutes: a knife or skewer should slide into the middle without any resistance. Leave them to cool in the foil for 20 minutes, so the skin rubs off with your fingers and the beets slice cleanly instead of falling apart while warm. Peel them (wear gloves, because beet juice stains hands and cutting boards) and cut into 1.5 cm cubes or wedges.
- 2Break the goat cheese into small pieces and keep it in the refrigerator until serving. Toast the walnuts in a dry pan over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring, until golden and fragrant. Stay at the stove, because they go from golden to bitter in under a minute. Tip them onto a plate to stop the cooking, then chop coarsely.
- 3Make the dressing. Put the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey, a pinch of salt and pepper in a jar, close the lid and shake for 20 seconds, or whisk in a bowl, until it is smooth and slightly thick. Taste it on a salad leaf and adjust the salt.
- 4Toss the salad leaves with half of the dressing and spread them over a platter or four plates. Dress the beets separately in a small bowl with the rest of the dressing, then arrange them on top of the leaves. Dressing them apart keeps the red juice off the leaves.
- 5Scatter the goat cheese and the walnuts over the beets just before serving. Do not toss: the cheese stays white and the pieces stay intact.