How To make Beet Salad With Goat Cheese and Candied Pecans

Beet Salad With Chevre and Candied Pecans

This Beet Salad is a really good dish to serve either as a Main or a first course when you want to impress your guests. The combination of the Goat Cheese, Candied Pecans and Orange Vinaigrette provides sweet, sour, acid, smooth and crunchy all at once.

This recipe is naturally gluten free

Watch A Video

Here is a video of 2 Cooks in the Kitchen making Beet Salad With Goat Cheese and Candied Pecans:

Ingredients For Beet Salad With Goat Cheese and Candied Pecans

  • Beets – Cleaned and trimmed
  • 3/4 cup Pecans – chopped
  • 2 Tbls Maple Syrup
  • Lettuce
  • 4 oz or more Goat Cheese – crumbled
  • 1/4 Cup Frozen Orange Juice Concentrate
  • 1/4 Cup Oil
  • 1/8 Cup Balsamic Vinegar

Roast the Beets

We start by roasting our beets. First we will wash them. Beets grow in the ground and even though they have been cleaned before you buy them it is necessary to wash them again. You also want to cut off any extra roots hanging from them. Then we will rub oil all over the beets. You can do this over the baking pan so any spillage is contained.

Photo shows the beets being oiled
Oil the Beets

Cover the Pan

We will cover the pan tightly with foil. The steam is a major factor in cooking the beets and we don’t want it to escape from the pan.

Photo shows the pan being covered with foil
Cover With Foil

Bake At 400° For 90 Minutes

We’ll bake our beets at 400° for 90 minutes. You don’t even need to check on their progress, you can just ignore them for the whole 90 minutes. At that time we’ll take them out of the oven and let them cool enough to handle.

Peel the Beets

Once the beets are cool enough we need to peel them. We wear latex gloves for this job as the beet juice will stain your hands. Often the peel just slides off when you rub the beets. You can rub them with a paper towel. The rough surface helps sometimes. If all else fails we will use a vegetable peeler to get the most stubborn skins off. Then we’ll cut the beets into cubes and set aside.

Photo shows the beets being peeled using a paper towel while wearing gloves
Peel the Beets
Photo shows on beet peeled
One Peeled Beet

Make the Candied Pecans

We use whole pecans and chop them up. You can find pecan pieces which will work just fine. We just put the pecans on a cutting board and chop away with a rock-and-chop motion.

Photo shows the pecans being chopped
Chop the Pecans

Toast the Pecans

Next we put our pecans in a dry pan over medium heat. You’ll want to stir these from time to time so they heat evenly.

Photo shows the pecan pieces in a pan
Toast the Pecans

Add Maple Syrup

After 5 to 10 minutes the pecans will start to smell a little toasted. Then we can pour on the maple syrup. We will stir the pecans to get them coated and then turn off the heat and let them cool. We try to spread them out in the pan while they cool so they don’t all stick together as much.

Photo shows maple syrup being poured over the hot pecan pieces
Pour In Maple Syrup

Make the Orange Vinaigrette

We’ll make the dressing in a pint jar so we can just shake it to mix it. We want to put equal parts orange juice concentrate and olive oil with half as much vinegar. You can scale this recipe to make more or less dressing using those proportions. We have found orange juice concentrate in a resealable container that we keep in the freezer to make this dressing.

Photo shows orange juice concentrate being put into a pint jar
Orange Juice Concentrate

Olive Oil

We like to use a high quality olive oil for salad dressings so we get something a little better than the oil we cook with. We’ll add an amount equal to the orange juice concentrate, in this case 1/4 cup.

Photo shows olive oil being added to the jar
Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar

Again, we like to use a quality balsamic vinegar. We’ll use half as much as the olive oil, in this case 1/8 cup.

Photo shows balsamic vinegar being added to the jar
Add Balsamic Vinegar

Shake Well

That’s all there is to our dressing. You just shake it well and it is ready to serve. You can quickly make this dressing for other salads as well.

Photo shows the dressing being shaken
Shake to Mix

Assemble the Beet Salad

We’ll start making our salad by filling the bowls with lettuce. It’s nice when we can grow our own but that is only possible certain times of the year. We like to use bitter lettuce for this salad but you can use any lettuce you want.

Photo shows the bowl of lettuce
Lettuce

Optional Hot Sauce

One half of the 2 Cooks likes to put hot sauce or chile oil on his salads. This is totally optional and you can skip it if you like.

Photo shows the optional hot sauce on the salad
Optional Hot Sauce

Add Pecans

By now our pecans should be cool enough to put on the salads. We just sprinkle them generously over the salad.

Photo shows the pecans added to the lettuce
Plate the Pecans

Add the Beets

Now we can add our beet cubes that we set aside earlier. We’ll be generous with these.

Photo shows the cut beet pieces on the salad
Add the Cut Beets

Goat Cheese

We like the combination of the tangy goat cheese and the sort of sweet, earthy beet flavor. We happen to have one of the best goat cheese makers, Cypress Grove, located at the end of our street. Their Humboldt Fog line is a perfect cheese for this dish.

Photo shows a small wheel of Cypress Grove Chevre
Cypress Grove Chevre

Inside the Cheese

When you cut open the cheese you’ll see a layer of rind, a layer of gooey cheese and then the crumbly middle. The rind and the gooey cheese are the strongest flavored while the crumbly middle is less pungent. You can choose how much of the outside you want in your salad.

Photo shows the inside of the goat cheese wheel
Cypress Grove Goat Cheese

Crumble the Cheese

Now we’ll just crumble the cheese over the salads. You can make the pieces as large or small as you’d like.

Photo shows the goat cheese being crumbled over the salad
Crumble the Goat Cheese

Add the Dressing

Then we just pour the dressing over the salad. We try to be careful not to get too much dressing but you can do it your way.

Photo shows the dressing being poured on
Pour On the Dressing

Garnish With Edible Flowers

We eat with our eyes first so we like to present a beautiful, well garnished dish. We have the nice red color of the beets to augment so some red dahlia petals and blue borage flowers will really brighten up the look of our salad. Onion flowers are also a nice touch on this salad with their little white stars.

Photo shows beet salad garnished with edible flowers
Garnish With Edible Flowers

We have a lot of other gluten free salad recipes you can try:

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Photo shows the Beet Salad With Goat Cheese and Candied Pecans

Roasted Beet Salad With Goat Cheese and Candied Pecans

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  • Author: 2 Cooks in the Kitchen

Description

This Beet Salad is a really good dish to serve either as a Main or a first course when you want to impress your guests. The combination of the Goat Cheese, Candied Pecans and Orange Vinaigrette provides sweet, sour, acid, smooth and crunchy all at once.


Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 1 lb Beets – Cleaned and trimmed
  • 3/4 cup Pecans – chopped
  • 2 Tbls Maple Syrup
  • Lettuce
  • 4 oz or more Goat Cheese – crumbled
  • 1/4 cup Frozen Orange Juice Concentrate
  • 1/4 cup Oil
  • 1/8 cup Balsamic Vinegar

Instructions

  1. Roast the beets. Wash and dry the beets and trim any excess roots or stems. Rub olive oil all over the beats. Place in a baking dish, cover tightly with foil and roast in a 400° oven for 90 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.
  2. Peel and dice the beets. You might want to wear gloves for this as the beets will stain your hands. They can also stain your countertops. Rub the peels off the beets or use a vegetable peeler to get the stubborn spots. Cut the beets into 3/4 inch cubes. Set aside.
  3. Candy the pecans. Chop the pecans. Put them in a dry pan on medium heat and toast for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until they begin to smell toasted. pour in the maple syrup, stir right away to coat the pecans, remove from heat and let cool.
  4. Make the dressing. Put the orange juice concentrate, olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a pint jar. Close the lid and shake to mix.
  5. Make the salad. Put lettuce in bowls. Put the candied pecans on top. Add the beet cubes to the salad. Crumble the goat cheese on and pour the dressing over.
  6. Garnish with edible flowers and serve.

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