The Beet Goes on Salad is a family favorite, and maybe it will be one of yours now, too! As a matter of fact, most any salad with beets ranks high on my list, and as far as I’m concerned, this is the highest. If you’re here, maybe you’re a beet lover, too. Just know you’ll find several beet salads on my site, as well as other beet-related recipes!
The Beet Goes On Salad
I’m afraid I can go off at a moment’s notice, waxing on poetically about the humble beet with only the least bit of encouragement…or maybe no encouragement at all! I love love love them and have a whole article here on them: What to Know About Beets.
About The Beet Goes On Salad:
But back to this simple little salad. It is simple, but each ingredient shines. It’s gorgeous with bibb or butter lettuce (and makes a great composed salad on individual plates if you’re looking for something elegant), but romaine or red lettuce is great, too.
Then there’s the hint of goat cheese, a few red onions, and my Honey Citrus Vinaigrette (I could almost drink that stuff), which sets everything off to a T. By the way, don’t like goat cheese? Feel free to sub in feta cheese, farmers, or even dry cottage cheese. (My favorite in this recipe is honey goat cheese.)
And of course, beets. This salad looks even more “Gourmet” with various colors of beet, but it tastes just as good when made with the common garden beet, and it’s fab with pickled beets, like my Grandma’s Pickled Beets, too. More about the beets, below.
When I served this salad to my daughter and her hubby, Jessi was floored. She had something similar recently at an Atlanta restaurant. The price? 17 bucks for one serving!
Roasted Canned Beets
Making The Beet Goes On Salad:
This salad is so simple to make, but plan ahead for the roasted beets. Be sure to make that Honey Citrus Vinaigrette. It just makes the salad. I usually double or triple the vinaigrette and use it for other salads, too.
If red onions feel a little strong to you, soak the slices in water for about half an hour, rinse, and then add to the salad. That little bath will tame them. I do think they are a must to counter the sweeter vinaigrette and the creamy goat cheese.
About the Beets:
Since this is a beet salad, let me give you some options for those beets!
Roasting Beets:
- The salad calls for roasted beets, so plan ahead. They take a little more than an hour to make, start to finish, but are so worth it. The directions for roasting are in the recipe.
- When roasting beets, leave a bit of the root and stem ends on, and when peeling leave them on until you’re finished. They will hardly bleed at all! Yay for that! And of course, peel them after they are roasted – the skin slips off easily.
Canned Beets:
- They’ll work in this salad, but they can be lackluster.
- If you’d like to try roasting canned beets (it’s quicker than starting from fresh and makes canned beets taste so much better), check out Cubby’s Beet and Goat Cheese Salad.
Pickled Beets:
- Pickled Beets are fabulous. Most canned or jarred beets are very good.
- If you’d like to try your own pickled beets, check out my Grandma’s Refrigerator Pickled Beets, shown below.
Grandma’s Refrigerator Pickled Beets
If You Like this Recipe, You Might Also Like:
- Honey Citrus Vinaigrette: Absolutely the best Salad Dressing for this recipe.
Honey Citrus Vinaigrette
- Grandma’s Refrigerator Pickled Beets: If you’ve never made a refrigerator pickled beet, they’re so easy. But plan if you’re making them for this recipe.
Grandma’s Refrigerator Pickled Beets
Saving Money on Groceries:
What you pay for groceries depends not only on WHERE you shop, but WHEN. Be strategic and stock up at rock-bottom prices.
- The best sales are before holidays; check out Win at the Grocers. Use these sales not just for your holiday, but to stock up at a low for the coming weeks to months.
- Take advantage of discount stores like Aldi or Lidl. The pricing at Buyer’s clubs is not always the lowest, but can trump in quality; be selective.
The best way to save money on this or any recipe is to have a well-stocked pantry, fridge, and freezer full of sale-priced items.
Get the most bang for your buck. Rinse (very well) the beet tops (they’re usually not pretty but are very good for you) and use them in pesto, salads, and smoothies like Big, Fat Green Smoothies.
Lettuce:
- The best pricing is by the head/bunch, especially on sale. It tastes better, is fresher, lasts longer, and has less chance of contamination.
- When compared by weight, bags run 4 to 10 times the price of lettuce by the head.
- Wash all greens thoroughly before using, except (according to the FDA), packaged, labeled prewashed. Avoid cross-contamination.
Beets:
- Sale prices are rare on any beets, fresh, canned, or pickled. If you catch a good price, stock up.
- The prices do vary wildly by season. Fresh beets are in season from June to October, with peak season July through August. Cans are at a low when warehouses are full in the fall and sometimes before holidays.
- Rather than letting fresh beets go to waste, pickle them, and don’t forget to use the tops in pesto, salads, or smoothies.
Goat Cheese:
- Both Aldi and Lidl have a reasonable price on goat cheese, but check your buyers’ club, especially during the holiday season.
- If neither the discount grocery nor the buyers’ clubs are an option, watch the sales on “near deli” cheese. If your store has hangtags (coupons), pick them up and hang on to them until a great sale happens.
- Once opened, use goat soft cheese promptly, but know that unopened goat cheese has a long shelf life in the fridge, much longer than dated.
The Beet Goes On Salad with Honey Citrus Vinaigrette
The Beet Goes on Salad
Restaurant quality and absolutely fabulous.
- Prep Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: salad
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 bunch of Roasted Beets, skinned, trimmed and sliced (or equivalent of pickled beets)
- 1 bunch of Bibb, Butter or Red Lettuce
- 1/4 to 1/2 Red Onion, halved and thinly sliced
- 1/2 log goat cheese, scraped & crumbled with a fork
- Honey Citrus Vinaigrette (see recipe)
Instructions
Roast beets in oven: Wash, remove greens, place on a sheet of foil and wrap well, closing at the top. Place on a pan and roast in a 350 degree oven for about an hour. Open package carefully, let cool. Slip off skin with a vegetable peeler or paring knife. Slice into 1/4 inch slices. Set aside.
In a large bowl, place washed and torn lettuce leaves and red onion. Toss with dressing. Place on platter or serving dishes, sprinkle with goat cheese, arrange beets on either side, strew red onion over the top.
Note: This is an acidic vinaigrette and will wilt a delicate green like these lelttuces. Dress it right before serving! It doesn’t hurt, if you think you’ll only eat part of the salad to dress just a portion of the greens. The goat cheese is also delicate. Don’t toss it in the salad, sprinkle it on top.
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