With just 15 minutes of active cooking and a few simple steps you can make this flavor packed beetroot and feta salad. Served a bit warm and loaded with beets, feta cheese, fennel and roasted pine nuts it's a salad that works in all seasons - and for any salad skeptic.
Bring out an oven tray. Place your beetroot cubes and fennel slices on top.
6 medium-sized beets, 1 medium-sized fennel
Place the garlic cloves on top and season with dried thyme, black pepper, salt and olive oil. Mix well and spread out evenly. Roast in the middle of the oven for 40 minutes, mixing once halfway.
4 garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon dried thyme, ½ teaspoon ground black pepper, ½ teaspoon fine table salt, 2 tablespoon olive oil
Meanwhile, roast the pine nuts. Heat a frying pan over medium-high heat and add in the pine nuts. Roast for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until golden brown. Remove from the heat and set aside for now.
½ cup pine nuts
After 40 minutes, bring out the beets and fennel from the oven. Crumble the feta cheese on top and mix, allowing the heat from the beets to melt the cheese slightly.
1.25 cups Feta cheese
To serve, place a handful of leafy greens in a bowl. Follow with roasted beets and fennel mixed with feta cheese. Top with pine nuts, and serve!
2 handfuls mixed leafy greens
Video
Notes
One batch of this recipe makes 2 main course salads. If serving as a side dish it will be enough for 4-6 people.
Ingredient notes & substitutions
Leafy greens - use a mixed bag or go for just spinach, arugula or your favorite
Pine nuts should be raw, unsalted and unroasted when starting out
Feta cheese can be swapped for another white salad cheese ("fake feta cheese") or a goat cheese like chèvre
Tips & tricks
Use gloves when peeling and cutting beets to avoid having pink fingers for a few days
Use your hands to mix the beets, fennel, olive oil and seasonings, and massage the veggies a bit to really get the seasoning in there
Add the Feta cheese while the beets and fennel are still warm, to allow it to melt slightly
Peel the beets for the best texture
Prep the salad ahead of time by roasting the beets with the fennel, and roasting the pine nuts, a few hours or even a day before. Either mix the beets with Feta cheese straight away, or wait until 5 minutes before serving and then heat up the beets and mix with Feta cheese. Then put it all together with the greens and pine nuts just before serving.
Nutritional content assumes half of the olive oil is consumed.