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February Secret Recipe Club: More beets

By Eliot, on February 18th, 2013

It is Secret Recipe Club time!    SRC is a great group of bloggers directed by some even more spectacular blogger-hosts (Jane,  Sarah, Suzanne, and the fabulous Group C host, Debbi.)

Secret Recipe Club

To get more info on SRC, click here.    (To see all of my SRC posts, click here.)

Mary Ann and Mariel are the mother and daughter duo behind Feast on the Cheap.    Mary Ann is a caterer, nurse, and writer.   Mariel, her daughter, is an accomplished writer with many magazine and blog credits.

Each of their recipes is broken down into price units and serving costs which is quite helpful when meal planning.

I immediately started searching their site for beet recipes.    You see, I pulled five pounds of beets from the garden on Super Bowl Sunday.  I sorely needed some more beet recipes.   (My last SRC post was a Roasted Beet, Carrot and Garlic Cream Soup.)

2013-01-03 14.10.56

Beets from the hoop house garden.

I was lucky enough to find two great sounding ones: Roasted Beets with Pears and Feta  and Roasted Beets, Toasted Walnuts and Fresh Mint Drizzled with an Orange-Balsamic Syrup.

Both sounded and looked delicious, but I had no fresh mint so I adapted Mariel’s Roasted Beets with Pears and Feta.2013-02-11 18.57.53 (1)

Roasted Beet Salad with Pear and Goat Cheese
Adapted from Feast on the Cheap

3 T. olive oil
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 t. grated fresh ginger
1 t. dried shallots
1 T.  honey
1/4 scant t.  curry powder
1/4 t. chili powder
1/4 scant t. paprika
1/4 t. ground black pepper
1/2 t. sea salt
1 clove garlic, minced

4 large beets whole with stems cut down to about 1 1/4 inches
1 pear
3/4 c.  red onion slices (soaked in ice water)
3/4 c. goat cheese, crumbled
3/4 c. pistachios

Make dressing by whisking together the first eleven ingredients.   Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Farenheit.

Cut off the beet greens leaving about 1 1/4 inch of the purple stems attached to the beet.   Rub with olive oil and place beets in  a large glass baking dish.   Cover tightly with aluminum foil and put in the oven. Cook for 50-60 minutes until fork-tender.    (Less time for smaller beets.)

Once beets are fork-tender, remove from oven and let cool uncovered until you can handle them (5 minutes or so).   Remove skins and cut off both ends. Then, slice beets.   Set aside.

Slice pears.    Arrange beets, onions and pears on serving plates and drizzle with dressing.   Crumble goat cheese on top and sprinkle with pistachios.

Here’s a great tip from Mariel:

If you’re not eating this salad right away and plan to serve it to company, dress the beets with 1/2 the dressing, cover and refrigerate. In a separate bowl, cover and refrigerate the undressed feta, pears, onions and nuts. When you’re ready to serve it, add the pears etc to the beets and toss with the additional dressing. Garnish with cilantro.

Just the beets and dressing sound like it would make a great salad in itself!   (I left out the cilantro.   I actually had some growing in the hoop house but the whiteflies had infested it!)

This dressing is out of this world and there is nothing we love better than roasted beets and goat cheese.   This might be our new favorite although we still like our old standby:   Roasted Beet Salad with Goat Cheese, Carrots, and Toasted Pecans.


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