February 2002 - Beetroot, Goat's Cheese and Walnut salad

It has taken me a while to get back here, unfortunately there has been some stuff happening in real life that has kept me away. I have still been cooking away but just not blogging away. However I am back now and getting started on the back log.

You will have seen this cover last month, it is for issue #2 from January/February 2002. I am so grateful that delicious. quickly moved from being published every second month to monthly. Having already looked through this magazine several times I was drawn to one recipe in particular. It comes from the wonderful Valli Little and is so striking and simple but full of flavour. The recipe I chose was Beetroot, Goat's Cheese & Walnut salad.

This was just terrific and I am sure that any other lovers of beetroot would enjoy this too. To cook the beetroot for the salad I rubbed them with olive oil and roasted in the oven for about an hour as they were pretty big. I tested them by pushing a knife in to make sure that they were done. I then cooled them before peeling. It is a good idea to wear a pair of gloves when peeling beets, I didn't this time around and ended up with some pink hands for a couple of days. The recipe also called for walnut oil for the dressing and toasted walnut pieces for the actual salad. I could not obtain walnut oil so I decided to go with macadamia oil and to follow through on that I used macadamia nuts in the salad. I think it worked quite well. Although I might try a different nut next time, perhaps pecans. I really enjoyed this, I had it for dinner but I think that it would make a great lunch option.

Beetroot, Goat's Cheese and Walnut salad

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 450 g cooked beetroot, peeled (you want fairly big ones)
• 125 g soft goat's cheese
• 2 tbsp chopped chives
  
• 50 ml red wine vinegar
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 100 ml walnut oil
  
• 120 ml olive oil
  
• 1 tbsp bottled grated horseradish
  
• 150 g mixed baby salad leaves
  
• 70 g walnut pieces, lightly toasted
  

Method

• Pre-heat oven grill.
  
• Slice beetroot in to rounds approximately 2 cm thick.
  
• With the remaining off cuts, dice them into small pieces.
  
• Mix the goat's cheese and half the chives, I also added a small amount of the horseradish.
• Spread this mixture thickly over the beetroot rounds.
  
• Combine vinegar and garlic in a small bowl and gradually whisk in the oils. I had trouble getting this to emulsify so I put it into the small bowl of my KitchenAid food processor and wizzed it up. It worked a charm. Stir in horseradish and remaining chives.
  
• Grill beetroot rounds until the cheese is bubbly and golden.
  
• Combine salad leaves, diced beetroot, nuts and dressing and divide between 4 plates and top with beetroot round.