Beet Goat Cheese Mandarin Salad

Prep Time: 5m

Total Time: 55m

Gluten free

Vegetarian

Beet Goat Cheese Mandarin Salad can be a healthy salad to serve any day to the one you love.

I do love beets, and my husband does not. I try and try to get him to eat beets, they are just so good for you. I figured if I made him this beet salad with the adorable heart shaped beet he couldn’t resist. This Beet and Goat Cheese Mandarin salad are perfect to make for your Valentine’s Day, simple to make, nutritious and adorable. Beets were actually used as an aphrodisiac by the Romans, so it makes this dish even more perfect for Valentine’s day…. hehe. Seriously beets are considered one of the healthiest vegetables. They are loaded with Potassium, magnesium, fiber, phosphorus, iron; vitamins A, B & C; beta-carotene, beta-cyanine; folic acid and are a great tonic to cleanse our livers and purifier of our blood. They also boost our energy levels, actually, the green tops of our beets have more nutritional benefits than the root itself, so when you cut away those beet greens before roasting, store them in your fridge to pull out and chop up to use in salads, smoothies, or soups.

If you don’t want to fuss with the heart cut out, just slice up your beets and plate a few slices and top with a dollop of the softened goat cheese, pistachio and olive oil and balsamic. The mandarin can be laid on top of to the side.

Beet Goat Cheese Mandarin Salad

Author: Amy Stafford

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 50 mins

Total time: 55 mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients

2 beets, greens cut off and rinsed and dried
2 ounces goat cheese, softened
1 mandarin peeled and separated
2 tablespoon pistachios, shelled and chopped
pinch of kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoon good quality olive oil
1 teaspoon balsamic olive oil
4 Fresh Basil leaves, torn (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 °.
Wrap beets in foil and place on baking sheet, roast in the oven for 50 minutes. They will be done when you can easily pierce with a fork.
Let beets cool, and wrap beet in a paper towel, rub and the skin should remove easily. If some skin doesn’t come off use an outer edge of a spoon to rub off.
Slice beet into 3/4″ slices.
Using a 2″-3″ heart shaped cookie cutter cut out the shape of a heart with beet. This is optional.
Place beet slices on a plate.
In a small bowl add goat cheese and using a fork, mash goat cheese until smooth and add 1 tablespoon of chopped pistachios and blend.
Drop a dollop of goat cheese on top of beet slices.
Sprinkle salt and pepper over each plate
In a small bowl whisk together olive oil and balsamic and drizzle over evenly.
Sprinkle remaining pistachios over top followed by torn basil leaves.