…with cherries, goat cheese & tarragon brown butter vinaigrette.
This Golden Beet Salad… it’s all about sweet golden beets tossed together with plump, tart dried cherries, creamy crumbled goat cheese and then!!! Then I douse the whole works in an irresistible browned butter tarragon vinaigrette and I just don’t know who in the world would be able to resist that. Not this girl, that’s for sure. but I would eat a shoe if you drowned it in brown butter. I promise this tastes a LOT better than that.
You can serve this salad warm or at room temperature or even chilled. It’s an amazing side dish alongside just about anything, but it’s also a great warm lunch salad. A little crusty bread on the side… a nice glass of chardonnay… that’s right, for lunch. Wine for lunch is self love.
I’m willing to bet that even the beet haters will like this one. Well, maybe not the beet haters, but definitely the beet dislikers. Why, you ask? Golden beets are milder, sweeter and a little less “earthy” tasting than red beets so they’re much easier for those selective eaters to enjoy.
And yes, I know everyone thinks red beets are the best thing to hit the human body since kale was invented. That they’re incredibly healthy, and they’re not wrong… but so are yellow beets! Some might even call them a new superfood. They’re soft, buttery and sweet. The texture is just heavenly and the colour is absolutely spectacular.
Serve this salad up as a side for a bbq, a picnic, or add it to the table at Thanksgiving because it really is a showstopper.
Scroll past the recipe if you’re looking for tips, substitutions, questions, etc. and details on how to make this recipe, but if you want to get straight to it, here’s my recipe-ish…
Golden Roasted Beets
Ingredients
- 4-5 medium sized golden beets
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 Tbsp honey divided
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 cup dried cherries
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 1 Tbsp white balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp dried tarragon
- 1/2 cup walnuts toasted and chopped
- 1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese
Instructions
- Chop the beets, toss them with the olive oil, honey, lemon juice and kosher salt. Cover and roast them at 375 for about an hour.
- Place the dried cherries in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Let sit for 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.
- Brown the butter. Pour into a bowl and whisk in the garlic clove, the white balsamic, the honey and the dried tarragon.
- Remove the beets from the oven and pour over the dressing. Then add in the dried cherries along with the walnuts, crumbled goat cheese and a big pinch each S&P. Toss and serve.
golden beet salad recipe ingredients, tips, substitutions:
Beets – what if you can’t find golden beets? can you substitute regular beets? Of course you can. I do find the flavour to be significantly different as the golden variety are milder and sweeter, but let’s be honest, brown butter vinaigrette solves any concerns you might have.
Goat Cheese – creamy goat cheese provides a welcome tang, but if it’s not your thing you can also use another creamy cheese like a good feta or even blue cheese.
Walnuts – I like the creamy, buttery texture of walnuts, but you could use pecans or sliced almonds or pistachios instead.
Tarragon – tarragon is so underrated, but it is a unique flavour. It’s an herby, licorice like flavour and I promise it works really well.
Cherries – dried cherries are plump, sweet and tart. You can definitely use fresh cherries if you can find some good ones. You can sub in dried cranberries too.
White Balsamic – if you need you you can sub in white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar.
Butter – not sure how to brown butter? I highly recommend you learn. It will change your life. Learn how here.
golden beet salad recipe, how to make it…
Roasting the beets is the first thing we need to do. They do take a while to roast, but you can do that well ahead of time – even a day or two before – and the rest of the dish comes together really quickly. We’ll flavour them up with olive oil, honey and lemon and roast them for about an hour until they’re nice and tender.
Then we’ll take a minute to plump the cherries by soaking them in hot water for about 10 minutes. You can skip this if you’re rushing, but I think it makes a huge difference in their texture.
Next we’ll brown the butter. This is key and I offer no substitutions. There is just nothing like it and the flavour it gives the salad is incomparable. Just be careful not to burn the butter because that would totally ruin things.
Garlic, white balsamic, tarragon and honey are added to the brown butter to make the dressing. Season it well with salt and some freshly ground black pepper.
We’ll add the beets into the vinaigrette and toss the mixture with the cherries, some goat cheese and walnuts. Another little shower of freshly ground black pepper and we’re done. Delish!
If you like this Golden Roasted Beets Recipe then I hope you try my Kale Beet Salad with Avocado and Crispy Blue Cheese Crumbs. I think you’ll love it. It can’t be “beet”. 😉
