Recipe Contest: Pickled Beet & Goat Cheese Balsamic Salad #PlateProud
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I was super-excited to have beets in my bin. As a kid – I was slightly obsessed with beets. I think I ate too many because I totally burned out on them. But now – 20 years later – beets are hip and I tried them again – and I like them again!
They’re so beautiful – the most rich colors – and rich colored foods = healthy!
To pickle the beets – first I cut them into quarters (only 2 beets) and the boiled them.
Once you boil them – the skin peels right off – much like if you’re blanching tomatoes. This took me back to the summers of canning vegetables with my Dad. Yes – that’s how a young Food Hussy was born – canning tomatoes.
I absolutely love these liquid measuring cups I got from OXO at the Food Blog Forum conference I was at – they are super handy! They come in multiple sizes and go from 1 teaspoon to 1 cup and there is a lot of overlap so they have multiple sizes. I used these to measure out the pickling ingredients.
After the beets are cooked and peeled – I diced them into bite-sized pieces and put them in the pickling liquid for 30 minutes (or longer if you can).
While the pickling magic was happening – I grilled a portabella mushroom (also from my bin). I was just making this salad for 2 – so actually 1 beet & 1 mushroom is good – but I didn’t mind having extra beets to nosh on. To grill the mushroom – I just used cooking spray on my grill pan and then rubbed olive oil & balsamic vinegar on the mushroom.
Then it was time to put the salad together – spring greens (from my bin) topped with pickled beets, grilled portabella mushroom, diced honey roasted almonds and topped with crumbled goat cheese. Then my favorite creamy balsamic dressing to finish it off!
