Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad Recipe

[Saviolo]

So, there's that classic mix of roasted beets with goat cheese. You see it on menus frequently, and it is really delicious. The sweet and earthy roasted beets and the rich and slightly sour chèvre make an amazing combination. Sometimes they'll add some toasted walnuts, but we're going to take it even further! We're adding a salad of bitter greens dressed with a very acidic dressing made from red wine vinegar and mustard, so the whole dish is bitter, sour, sweet, with some richness, and a bit of salty. The whole thing comes out very well balanced and delicious.

For the bitter greens, we used Belgian endive, black kale, and radicchio, but you can replace these with your favourite bitter greens. Frisée also works very well in this dish. The trick is that the dressing needs to be acidic enough and salty enough to counteract the intense bitterness of the greens your using. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but it brings a great balance to the dish. Also a great balance of textures, too. There's the crunchy leafy greens, the unctuous goat cheese, the soft roasted beets, and the crispy toasted walnuts.

(I did discover that with those dark beets and all of those dark greens, it's rather hard to get a good photo)

[sagesnow]

1. Yum!

Will have to try this soon.

[Little Star]

2. Oh my! I want!

[Laura PourMeADrink]

3. So interesting. One of my absolute favorites

I don't think I know what "dark beets" are. Sounds like you must live where you can get great produce. Here is deep red TX....not so much.

[Saviolo]

4. They're just regular beets

They just happened to be really really dark for some reason. Hard to take a photo of them!

We live in Southern Ontario, and there is a lot of really excellent produce available here, though my hubby comes from Houston, TX originally, and he misses the long growing season there, because there are a few things he used to be able to get easily in TX that is harder to find nice examples of here. Okra, for instance. The stores in Houston were lousy with okra when it was in season, but the growing season here isn't quite long enough for really nice okra.

Also, back to the subject of the beets, you could use any beets you like for this recipe. Candycane beets, golden beets, whatever you have on hand or prefer.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

5. We went there on our honeymoon! Beautiful. Got married

four days after 9-11...and our flights to Europe were canceled....so we just looked for anything flying out of NOLA and BOOM - it was Buffalo ! But it ended up to be a great trip. Drove up to Niagara Falls, Niagara on the Lakes, to Toronto, and then over to Little Inn in Bayfield ON. Small world, since we now live in Texas. How'd you get your Texan husband to move. Been trying that for years. didn't know it was possible to get a Texan to leave. LOL

Back to beets - love them - especially borscht. Also like to slice them super thin and steam w/goat cheese, arugula, and a couple seared scallops.

BTW, it was super fun to hit local Canadian pubs since we were there after 9-11. People booed and hissed Bush when he appeared on TV. Everyone was mad because Bush sent inbound flights to Canada. They were like "Thanks a lot ! " Young teens all over Toronto begging for money to build bomb shelters.

[Saviolo]

6. It was a number of things!

He had been going to cooking school in Vermont after being laid off in the dot.bust in the late 90's, and we had been long distance for a long time. Toronto (and Canada) was a lot more gay friendly, as well. We did try for me to go down there and join him in Seattle while he was working down there (before the bust and the cooking school) but the USA is extremely difficult to get into unless you look really really good on paper (and I don't). The last few years have made him very glad he came up to Canada and isn't living in the USA any more (but he did arrange for an absentee ballot to vote for Beto this year!). If you ever make it back up this way, I have lots of recommendations for great pubs in Toronto and amazing wineries in the Niagara region.

Back to beets: Yes, we make beet and beef stew, too. That's a recipe you'll definitely see on our channel sometime this winter. He makes a nice borscht sort of thing as well. Growing up I never liked beets (or brussel sprouts), turns out you just need someone to cook'em right and they're amazing.