A few months back we posted a delicious roasted beet salad on this blog. It is delicious with a capital D. As much as I crave that salad, I don't get to have it that often because it involves a lot of planning and prep. Roasting beets is not a quick 5 minute endeavor. But my tummy was telling me that I needed to figure out a way to get beets into my salads more frequently, and of course, my husbands mistress (Costco) came through for us. Costco sells the most delicious pickeled beets. They are roasted and marinated in the most delicious brine. They taste practically as good as home grown roasted beets, but all you have to do for these babies is open a jar. That is my kind of treat. Today we are blessing your bellies with a recipe for a beet salad with pistachios and goat cheese, and all sorts of wonderful and easy toppings.
Ingredients:
16 ounces pickled beets, chopped
8 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
6 cups spinach, washed
1 cup pistachios, shelled
1/2 cup pickled beet juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp lavender salt
1 tsp pepper
Mix the last 5 ingredients together as your dressing, then just toss everything else together on a plate. The beet juice will dye your goat cheese the most beautiful and fun pink color. The beets are beautiful and fun enough to be an anomaly for your kids and they actually might eat them!
This salad has a wonderful earthiness and heartiness due to the beets. Its got a pack of protein and creaminess from the nuts and cheese, and a very mild get in my belly dressing to compliment it. This easy salad will become a quick go-to when you don't feel like spending any longer than 3 seconds making your lunch. Enjoy!
Ok ladies and gents, I'm warning you in advance that this salad is NOT low maintenance. You have to roast things, use aluminum foil, dirty several bowls, etc. But it's worth it. It is a lovely diversion from a typical salad. You get a nice earthiness from the beets, creaminess from the goat cheese, and crunch from the almonds. Definitely a good "I'm bored from the norm" salad.
Get about 2-3 beets per person you are going to serve. You want the beets to all be relatively the same size. I had a few large ones but mostly small ones, so I cut the large ones to match the size of the small ones so they all roasted evenly.
Ingredients:
Beets (2-3 small beets, or 1 large beet per person)
Almonds (1/2 cup)
Goat Cheese (1/2 cup)
Spinach (1 pound/1 pkg)
Mustard (2 tsp)
Balsamic Vinegar (1/2 cup)
Pepper (to taste)
Salt (to taste)
Olive Oil (1/2 cup)
Trim the tops and feet off of your beets and peel them The outsides of beets are particularly dirty tasting, so peeling them helps cure that. Then wrap each individually in tin foil.
Line a baking sheet with tin foil and heat your oven to 400 degrees. Put your beets on the baking sheet and bake for 1 hour.
Then make your dressing. 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/2 cup balsamic, 2 tsp yellow mustard, salt and pepper to taste. Whisk together.
When beets are done (fork tender in center) unwrap them and cut into bite sized wedges. Cover beets with 1/3 of the dressing so they are well coated and can soak it up.
Plate each plate with a bunch of spinach. Then crumble goat cheese on top, sprinkle with toasted almonds, add the beets, then add extra dressing on top.
