Sweet oven roasted beets, thinly sliced red onion and roasted pistachios are tossed together with a red wine vinaigrette in this vegetarian side dish which is perfect for the holidays! Topped with crumbled goat cheese, this will be a great addition to your holiday table.

It took me some years to warm up to goat cheese but now I really like it. It’s sharp flavor particularly pairs well with sweet vegetables like butternut squash, beetroot, pumpkin.

There’s this local Italian restaurant that serves roasted beets with goat cheese on their menu and it’s my favorite appetizer there- I always order it. I tried recreating the same dish at home and it turned out really well.

This is also super easy to make which makes it a winner recipe especially during the busy festive time. I love beets and always looking for ways to incorporate them into my diet. After beetroot tikki, this is another one of my absolute favorite ways to enjoy beets!

This Roasted Beets with Goat Cheese

• makes a great side or appetizer for the holidays.
• is vegetarian and gluten-free.
• easy to make and can be prepped in advance.
• great way to enjoy beets!
• can also be served as a salad with added greens.

I love the flavor of roasted beets (or for that matter any roasted vegetable) and so I cooked them in the oven. But you may also steam it or pressure cook it.

Ingredients

Beetroot: For this recipe, you would need 3 large beets or 5-6 small beets. I like roasting the beets in the oven and then chopping them into small pieces for this recipe.

Onion: slicing the red onion super thin (1/8 inch) is important here, it really makes a difference to the final flavor. I recommend using a mandoline slicer to get it thin. Or you can also use a knife if you have good chopping/slicing skills.

Pistachios: I like using roasted pistachios for this though raw will also work. If you don’t like pistachios or don’t have them, you can use walnuts or pecans in place.

Goat cheese: creamy goat cheese which you find in a block at grocery stores is what you need here. If you don’t have goat cheese, feta cheese can be substituted (though I really prefer goat cheese here).

Red Wine Vinaigrette: it’s a simple vinaigrette made with olive oil, red wine vinegar, honey and Dijon mustard. You can replace the red wine vinegar with balsamic vinegar. Apple cider vinegar will also be okay. Honey can be replaced with maple syrup.

Step by Step Instructions

1- Pre-heat your oven to 425 F degrees. Wash and scrub the beets and then trim the top and bottom and cut each beet into 2 pieces. I used 6 medium size beets here. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and drizzle olive oil on top.

2- Use your hands to coat the beets with the olive oil. Sprinkle some salt and pepper and place the beets on the baking tray with the cut side facing down and bake at 425 F degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until you can insert a fork easily inside the beet. Time will vary depending on the size of the beets. Bigger beets will take more time.

3- Once done, let them cool and then peel the skin off. You can use a peeler or the skin can also be easily peeled by hands.

4- Once all the beets are peeled, chop them into small pieces (1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces). Set this aside.

5- To make the red wine vinaigrette (you should do this while the beets are in the oven), take a glass bowl/jar and to that add 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil.

6- Then add 1/2 tablespoon honey.

7- And 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar and 1/2 to 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard.

8- Add salt and black pepper to taste and then use a wire whisk to mix it all together.

9- Slice a medium red onion into very thin slices (1/8 inch) using a mandoline slicer. You can also use a knife but mandoline slicer makes it much easier and also makes sure that all slices are equal. Transfer the sliced onions along with roasted beets into a large bowl.

10- Add the prepared red wine vinaigrette to it and mix everything using a spatula.

11- Now add the roasted pistachios (reserve 1 tablespoon for garnishing later) and mix.

12- To serve, transfer it to your serving bowl/platter, top with reserved pistachios and crumbled goat cheese. You can add as much goat cheese as you prefer/like. Serve it as an appetizer or as a side.

Prep In Advance

If you making this for Thanksgiving, you can roast the beets in advance and chop them and have them ready. Keep them refrigerated.

The dressing can also be made in advance and will stay fine in the fridge.

You can also slice the onions beforehand but I don’t like slicing them way in advance. On the day of you plan to serve these, mix the beets, onion and pistachios together few hours before. That helps in mixing all the flavors together.

Add the crumbled goat cheese before serving.

Storage

This can be stored in the refrigerator overnight or up to 48 hours. I would not recommend store beyond that.

Make It A Salad!

You can easily make a salad out of this!

Add arugula or other greens of choice to this and you have a really nice salad for your dinner table. I would use around 4 to 5 ounces of green here.

Notes

• The vinaigrette can be adjusted to taste. Like you can use more of honey for a sweeter vinaigrette or more of Dijon mustard as per your liking.
• If you don’t want to use beets, butternut squash would also be really good here. You would roast it the same way and basically follow all the recipe as it.
• Beets can be steamed or pressure cooked as well. But roasting in the oven really brings out so much flavor.
• Adjust the amount of goat cheese to taste and preference. You can add much as you like. I generally add around 1 to 2 oz. but you can definitely double it.
• If you have nut allergy, you can substitute the pistachios with pumpkin seeds.

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