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I had a taste of this salad in Bogotá and have finally decided to recreate it. With fresh beets in season, who could resist this Roasted Beet and Crispy Goat Cheese Salad?

Yes! It’s FINALLY time for the farmers market down the street to open up. It’s been open for a couple of weeks, but the first week, my favorite produce vendor wasn’t there. *pout*

The second week, they were there! YAY! And that’s what inspired this Roasted Beef and Crispy Goat Cheese Salad. The gorgeous fresh beets! And GOLDEN BEETS TO BOOT! I’ve never cooked with golden beets, nor have I tasted golden beets before. I was super super excited to see and purchase a bunch of both types of beets. This was going to be a complete experiment salad. And I was EXCITED!!! Can ya tell??

I mean, just look at how cool those beets look?? How can you NOT be inspired??

So, this vendor has the “cool” produce. They have the green and purple kohlrabi, they have red, white and BLACK radishes, they have gold squash, the cutest striped aubergines, fennel; just the COOL produce!! The stuff the other vendors just don’t have. They also have the best selection of fresh herbs, too! Lemon basil, lemongrass, sage, dill, just to mention a few. How can you NOT be inspired to create with wonderfully fresh produce such as this at your fingertips?

I’m just going to lay it all out there. Beets have a … um… distinctive flavor. The red ones do, at least. The golden beets, which I’d never tasted before, had a much milder flavor, but weren’t as sweet as the roasted red beet. They also didn’t have that prominent, distinctive flavor that the red beet had. Of course, I wanted to combine the two. You just can’t beat the color of red beets. No pun intended.

And the beets paired with the crispy, creamy, and tart goat cheese is just… YUM!! See all those herbs and spices in the mix? The that I made is so delicious! I see myself making more and more of this one. I think it’s going to be my new “go to” for any Italian style flavorings. But this post is about this salad, not my Tuscan spice blend.

I initially had reservations about just plopping the goat cheese in the pan. I initially thought it should be almost frozen or else it would just melt when I tried to fry it. You follow the logic, right? I mean, you don’t really have to put anything with goat cheese to make it a sauce. You can simply toss it with some hot pasta and it melts into a delicious creamy texture. So, I was a little worried it would be a huge #fail if I didn’t chill it in the freezer, but I trusted all the research I did and it worked like a charm! Double coating it kept it crisp and I’m attributing that double dry ingredients dredge as the reason why the goat cheese didn’t just become a melted mess in the pan.

So, trust me when I say, coat well and just jump with both feet!

For once, I didn’t overload the plate! YAY! Less is truly more with this salad. I tossed in some red onion for a bit of crunchy flavor that would set off the sweet beets and compliment the crunch of the crust on the cheese. Then there’s the sweet and tangy salad dressing that pairs nicely with the sweet beets and tangy goat cheese. The crisp lettuce, the crispy goat cheese. You get the flavor picture I’m painting, don’t you? And it is a masterpiece!! You should try to paint one, too. You will not be disappointed.