Roasted rainbow beet & fried goat cheese salad

Chef, Lauren Mozer shares her roasted beet and fried goat cheese salad recipe paired with a lemon and herb vinaigrette.

Serves
8-10

INGREDIENTS

For goat cheese

For honey-roasted pecans

Lemon & herb vinaigrette

METHOD

  • Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Wrap each beet in tin foil individually.  Roast until tender (totally depends on size).  Let cool completely before peeling or cutting.
  • Peel beets, and cut from east to west, in slices approx. 1 cm thick.  Use a cookie cutter to round out the piece of beet.  It’s very important to keep the candy cane and yellow beets separated from the red beets, otherwise the colour will be affected.
  • Once beets are roasted, cut, and stored, marinate with the lemon & basil vinaigrette for at least 20-30 minutes, up to one day.

For goat cheese:

  • Remove goat cheese from packaging.  Section into 8-10 equal sized rounds (hockey puck shaped).  Have three small to medium sized bowls.  Put flour in one bowl.  Put panko breadcrumbs in one bowl.
  • Crack 2 eggs and mix them in the third bowl.  In the following order, bread the goat cheese medallions:  flour, egg wash, panko breadcrumbs.  Make sure each medallion is sufficiently covered.
  • Just before plating, heat oil in a sauté pan until almost smoking.  Fry goat cheese medallions until golden brown.  Place on paper towel and season with salt.

For honey-roasted pecans:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a bowl, mix all ingredients listed above.  Be sure each pecan is equally coated in the sticky sugar coating.
  • Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Put the coated nuts on the baking sheet and make sure they are spread evenly, without clumping.
  • Bake at 350 until bubbling, about 15-20 minutes.
  • Let the pecans cool until touching them.  Then break them up into individual pieces.

Lemon & herb vinaigrette:

  • Add ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix together until fully emulsified.
  • Adjust for seasoning with salt & pepper.
  • Add additional honey of you think it should be sweeter, or more balsamic vinegar if you like it tangy.