Golden Beet Salad with Apples and Goat Cheese

Golden Beet Salad with Apples and Goat Cheese is full of savory contrasts – sweet and tangy, crisp and tender, smooth and crunchy. It’s a sunny salad of roasted golden beets tossed with fresh apples and red onions, studded with goat cheese, and tied together with a honey mustard vinaigrette.

Golden Beet Salad with Apples and Goat Cheese delivers a lovely blend of flavors and textures. The roasted golden beets shine with their earthy sweetness. And the crisp bites of apple are a pleasant contrast to the velvety tenderness of cooked beets.

Truth be told, I never single-handedly cooked a beet until well into my forties. That’s when I fell hard for a roasted beet salad with oranges in a citrus vinaigrette. Fifteen years later, I’m still making that salad. I still find beet cookery a bit of a challenge, mostly because they take forever, so it’s a commitment.

Golden vs. Red Beets

Red beets are ubiquitous, readily available year round. I love how they stain your fingers like a culinary badge of honor. Golden beets seem to show up less frequently, but often make an appearance in the Fall, especially at the farmers market. That was my inspiration to pair golden beets with apples for a more local and seasonal vibe.

Some say that golden beets are milder in flavor than red beets. I think that might just be a visual cue from the mellow yellow. “You eat with your eyes first” as the saying goes. To me, the flavor is the same, earthy and sweet.

Fold in the Cheese

I first made this recipe with blue cheese, given the musty nuggets are a popular partner for apples in a salad. Revisiting the recipe this summer, I decided it needed some brightness. So I tried goat cheese. It’s a classic pairing for beets because it works! Oh so creamy and tart.

The tangy brightness of goat cheese is a great counterpoint for the beets. There’s an added bonus as the soft cheese “melts” a bit into the vinaigrette, coating the beets and apples, for a saucy vibe. I think feta is a great option also.

More Onions Please

I’ve called for sliced red onions in my Golden Beet Salad with Apples and Goat Cheese. But then I found myself with pickled red onions in the fridge during a recent round of recipe testing. It’s a great optional embellishment if you’re so inclined. Either way, onion lovers may want to double the amount of onions.

Golden Beet Salad with Apples and Goat Cheese

Roasted golden beets are the star of this salad, tossed with fresh apples, red onions, and goat cheese. A quick honey mustard vinaigrette ties it together. This sunny salad delivers a lovely blend of flavors and textures. There's the earthy sweetness of beets with the tang of goat cheese. The bits of fresh apple add some crunch against the tenderness of the cooked beets.

5 from 1 vote

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Author Margie

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 5 minutes mins

Servings 8 servings

Ingredients

  

• 1 bunch golden beets (3 medium sized beets, approximately 1 pound trimmed)
• 1 medium apple
• ⅓ cup (2 ounces) goat cheese, crumbled
• ¼ cup sliced red onion
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

Dressing

• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon honey
• ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
• ⅛ teaspoon salt

Instructions

 

• First roast the beets: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Trim off the beet greens and thoroughly rinse beets. Cut the beets in half or quarters, aiming for roughly equal-sized pieces. Put the beets all together on a large sheet of foil. Close up the foil, wrapping the beets inside, and place on a quarter sheet pan or small roasting pan. Roast beets in the oven for about 50 minutes or until all the beets are fork-tender. When the beets are cool enough to handle, use a paring knife to remove the skin. Slice the beets into ¼ inch wide bite-size pieces.
• Prepare the dressing: Combine all the ingredients and shake or whisk.
• Salad Assembly: Peel apple if desired. Remove core and quarter apple. Then cut each quarter into ¼ inch slices. Combine apples and cooked beets with the dressing in a medium bowl. Gently stir or toss to evenly coat the apples and beets. Add the goat cheese, onions, and black pepper. Stir gently to distribute ingredients. Add more salt if desired. Serve immediately. Store leftovers in the refrigerator.

Notes

1. Roasting beets takes time. Whole beets especially can take over 60 minutes to cook. For this recipe, I halve or quarter the beets, which reduces the cooking time somewhat. The foil wrapper produces a steam-roasting effect, which makes the beets easy to peel (as the skins slip off easily) and also facilitates clean-up (since released beet juices are contained). Still, it’s best to use a rimmed baking sheet or roasting pan to hold the foil wrapped beets to contain any released liquid. 
2. It helps to have the dressing ready to go before you cut the apple. That way you can toss the sliced apple in the dressing to prevent browning. Use a crisp apple variety for best texture. 
3. Substitute your preferred type of cheese. Soft goat cheese “melts” a bit into the dressing for a creamy effect. Feta or blue cheese would make good substitutes. 
4. The recipe calls for red onion. I happened to have some pickled red onions in the fridge during my latest round of recipe testing (as pictured). It’s a good embellishment if you want to make the effort, but freshly sliced red onion is my usual go to. 
5. A fresh herb garnish would be nice if you like. 
6. I’ve come to prefer smaller bite-size pieces of beets and apples for this salad. In the past, I sliced the beets and apples into wedges (pictured below recipe), which makes for a prettier presentation but a bit more fussy for prep and eating.