Beetroot is one of my favourite vegetables. I love it both hot and cold, but especially love it in salads.
I like to roast the beetroot as it really intensifies the flavour, but if you want to save on time, then you can always use fresh pre-cooked beetroot (available in most supermarkets).
In this salad, I've used lovely soft and creamy goats cheese but if you want something a little tarter, then feta or Stilton also work really well.
The honey and mustard dressing goes beautifully with these salad ingredients, and has such a lovely golden colour when made with rapeseed oil.
Toasted almonds add crunch and finely chopped dill just adds another layer of flavour. And it's perfect all year round too!
For the salad
500g fresh beetroot
Olive oil
Mixed salad leaves
¼ cucumber
¼ red onion
125g soft, mild goats cheese (for 2 people)
Handful of toasted almonds
Handful of fresh dill
For the honey and mustard dressing
1 tablespoon of runny honey
½ tablespoon of Dijon mustard
½ tablespoon of wholegrain mustard
2 tablespoons of cider vinegar (or 1 of cider and 1 of balsamic)
6 tablespoons of rapeseed (or light olive) oil
Seasoning
- Pre-heat the oven to 190c.
- Top and tail the beetroots, leaving a little of the stalk intact and then cut any large beetroot in half.
- Place each beetroot (or half beetroot) in a piece of foil and drizzle with a little olive oil. Wrap the beetroot in the foil and place in the hot oven.
- Cook the beetroot for 1 - 1½ hours, until tender. To test if the beetroot is ready, remove from the oven and check how soft the beetroot are by inserting a small, sharp knife. If it slides in easily, then the beetroot is cooked.
- Once the beetroot is ready, remove from the oven, unwrap the foil and leave to cool.
- Once the beetroot has cooled down enough to touch, remove the remaining stalk and peel or rub off the skin (this is the frustrating bit!). Cut the beetroot into bite-sized chunks or slices.
- Place all the dressing ingredients into a jug or jar and mix or shake well to combine.
- Cut the cucumber into small dice.
- Thinly slice the red onion,
- Arrange the salad leaves on the plates, and top with the cucumber, red onion and beetroot.
- Carefully break up the soft goats cheese into small chunks and add to the salad.
- Sprinkle over the toasted almonds.
- Finely chop some dill fronds.
- Drizzle over some of the dressing, some of the finely chopped dill and serve.
