Roasted Baby Beetroot and Feta Salad

I came across some lovely bunches of baby beets at the farmer's market and had to buy them. I'm trying to expand my vegetable horizons by buying a vegetable I've never tasted or never cooked before and experimenting.



I've never had fresh beetroot before.  I have to say that I'm not a huge fan of the stuff in the tins but I just knew freshly homecooked beetroot had to be better than the tinned stuff.

I used Haalo's recipe from Cook (Almost) Anything At Least Once for Roasted Baby Beetroot and Goat Cheese Salad.  I tossed the baby beets in olive oil and roasted them whole with some garlic cloves until they were soft and then removed their skins while they were still warm.  I was expecting purple stained fingers and countertops, but luckily the whole endeavour turned out to be quite tidy.

I didn't have any goat cheese so I used feta instead but I really loved the pairing of salty feta with sweet beetroot.  Haalo's recipe uses the juice left in the roasting packet as a basis for the dressing, but my beetroot was disappointingly dry.  I used a tiny bit more olive oil and lemon juice to make the roasted garlic dressing.

I served the beetroot, feta and dressing on beetroot leaves and baby spinach leaves.  It was a lovely fresh salad.  I'll have to make it again.