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Beet and Goat Cheese Salad

Thinly sliced roasted beets, rounds of soft goat cheese, pistachios and a balsamic reduction.

Prep
20 min
Cook
1 hr
Makes
Serves 4
Jump to the recipe
Beet slices with rounds of goat cheese, nuts and balsamic
Photo: MariaGutebring / Pixabay

This is the plated version of a beet salad — sliced thin and arranged rather than tossed — and the pairing is a genuinely old one because it works on chemistry as much as taste. Beets are earthy from geosmin, the same compound that gives soil its smell after rain. Fresh goat cheese is acidic and lactic. The acid cuts the earthiness in a way that a mild creamy cheese cannot, which is why mozzarella here would taste of nothing much.

Slice the beets thinly — about an eighth of an inch. Thick wedges are for a rustic tossed salad; this one wants overlapping rounds that yield under a fork.

The balsamic reduction goes on at the very end and sparingly. It is intense, and too much of it turns the plate into a single sweet note that flattens both the beets and the cheese.

The tossed version, with feta and walnuts, is here.

Pistachios rather than walnuts, purely for color. Against dark red and white, green reads. Toast them briefly and salt them.

Oil being poured over beet and cheese on a board
Photo: Odeani Baker / Pexels

Goat cheese salad with roasted beets, printed

Thinly sliced roasted beets, rounds of soft goat cheese, pistachios and a balsamic reduction.

Salad and balsamic reduction

For the salad

  • 1½ lb (700 g) beets
  • 5 oz (150 g) soft goat cheese log, in 1 cm rounds
  • ½ cup (60 g) shelled pistachios
  • 3 oz (80 g) arugula
  • Small handful of mint leaves
  • 2 tbsp good olive oil
  • Flaky salt and black pepper

For the balsamic reduction

  • ¾ cup (180 ml) balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tbsp honey

Roasting, slicing, arranging

  1. 1 Roast the beets wrapped in foil at 400°F (200°C) convection for 50–60 minutes, until tender. Cool, rub off the skins and slice into thin rounds.
  2. 2 Simmer the balsamic and honey together for 6–8 minutes until reduced by two-thirds. It thickens as it cools, so stop while it still pours.
  3. 3 Toast the pistachios in a dry pan for 3 minutes, then chop them roughly and salt them.
  4. 4 Arrange the beet rounds overlapping on a platter. Scatter the arugula over, then set the goat cheese rounds among them.
  5. 5 Drizzle with olive oil, season, and add the pistachios and mint.
  6. 6 Zigzag the cooled reduction over just before serving — a little goes a long way.

Cutting goat cheese cleanly

  • A cheese wire or a knife dipped in hot water cuts goat cheese cleanly. Cold and dry, it crumbles.
  • The reduction keeps a month in a jar at room temperature.