Roasted Beets and Goat cheese

I usually spend the early mornings of the weekend watching the Cooking Channel, searching for inspiration (and something easy and doable).  For a while almost every show had something about roasted beets.  Each seemed messy and too much trouble.  That, and I'm not really a big fan of beets.  Sure I've tried those diets where they say to eat beets, which I tried from a can.  But cooking them myself seemed more daunting.  That was, until a trip to the farmers market and I just had to try.  That and you add goat cheese to the recipe (which is a favourite cheese)!

Ingredients

2 medium beets, leaves trimmed, or 1/2 pound roasted beets from deli or salad bar

1 tablespoon olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4-ounce log goat cheese

1 small bunch chives, finely sliced

1/2 lemon, juiced

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

If using raw beets, wash them clean of sand and dirt. Set aside to air dry or dry well with a towel or paper towel. If using roasted beets, proceed to the chopping step. 

Toss the beets in a mixing bowl with oil, a few pinches of salt and pepper (I put a nice coating of pepper).

Place beets in a foil and roast until fork tender, about 40 minutes.

Remove beets from oven and set aside to cool.

Remove and discard the skins from the beets.

Handle carefully so you're not beet red at the end.  Use a paper napking to remove the skins from the beet.

Cut beets into quarters.

Dump the blended beets into a serving bowl.

Crumble the goat cheese into the beets and add the chives and lemon juice.



Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese salad

 Stay hungry my friend!