Beet & Feta Salad

I love love love beets in a salad.  This recipe has three of my favourite ingredients, so I figured it had to be a winner.  Unfortunately, I used low fat grocery-store-brand feta cheese that looked and tasted a lot like a chunk of rubber.  Next time I would use a better quality feta and just sprinkle it on top.



I substituted pecans for walnuts.  I do this a lot because I seem to always have pecans and never walnuts.  Oh yeah.  The recipe called for a 1/2 cup of orange juice concentrate.  I didn't use it so I'm not putting it in the instructions.  But if I do, one day, I'll leave a comment.  Instead I added a can of mandarin orange segments.  (And I only had plain olive oil, not extra virgin.  And no maple syrup so I substituted corn syrup.  And I mixed it all together rather than making a composed salad.) Otherwise I followed the recipe to a tee.

Check out the "How to cook beets" post if you're not sure how.

Beet & Feta Salad

4    medium    beets, cooked and cut into cubes
1/3 cup           chopped walnuts
1    can           mandarin orange segments
3    tbsp          maple syrup or corn syrup
1/4 cup           balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup           extra virgin olive oil
2    ounces      goat cheese
salad greens or baby spinach

While the beets are cooking, place the walnuts in a skillet over medium-low heat with a smidge of olive oil.
Heat until they are warm and starting to toast, then stir in the maple syrup.

Cook, stirring constantly, until evenly coated and browned.   Remove from heat and cool.
In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar and oil for dressing.

Cut the beets into cubes.

The recipe says to place a large helping of salad greens onto each of four salad plates.   Place beets over the greens and top with with feta, nuts and drizzled dressing.

But like I said, I mixed it all together . . .

I served it on a bed of lettuce, then sprinkled the nuts on top - so they wouldn't get soggy. It looked like the picture at the top of this post.