Roasted Beetroot and Feta Salad

This salad is healthy and flavorful. Roasted beetroot and feta are a perfect combination. The beets are roasted to perfection, and the feta adds a delicious, salty flavor. This salad is perfect for a light lunch or as a side dish.

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Why you’ll love this delicious salad

• Bursting with flavor, this salad makes the perfect summer lunch or appetizer.
• It can be ready in as little as 10 minutes!
• All the ingredients are 100% vegetarian.

What ingredients do I need?

You’ll need all the ingredients shown in the photograph below.

Beets are so great, and beetroot in a salad is a great way to use them.

Made within the hour (or in 10 minutes if you use our speed hack), this is a regular feature on our summer menu.

How to make roasted beetroot and feta salad

Our delicious roasted beetroot and feta salad is made from fresh ingredients and is so simple to make if you follow our instructions.

A full printable recipe and the measurements in both US customary and metric are available in the recipe card below.

First, you’ll need to preheat your oven to 200°C/390°F.

Roasting beetroot

Next, prep your raw beetroot, wash, top, and tail them.

Don’t worry about peeling them, the skins will become really soft and ever so easy to remove after they have roasted.

Now wrap each beetroot in foil and place them on a roasting tin or baking tray and roast until they are fork tender, approximately 45 minutes.

Remove them from the oven and let them cool.

Making the vinaigrette

Add extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, and Dijon mustard to a jug or bowl, and stir to mix.

Taste and add in salt and pepper to taste, then set aside.

Prepare the salad

Now take half a fresh cucumber and make it into ribbons and place it into your salad bowl.

Then, add mixed rocket and watercress to a salad bowl, it’ll be a sea of salad green.

Next, add crumbled feta cheese, you’ll need to cube or crumble feta and scatter it on top of your salad leaves and cucumber.

Now your beetroots should be warm but cool enough to handle.

Carefully open the tin foil and peel the beets.

You’ll be able to do this easily by scraping a knife over them.

Now cut your beetroots into chunky wedges and place the wedges into your salad bowl.

Then scatter roughly chopped walnuts over your salad.

Give your salad dressing a good shake and then drizzle it over and if you like, season with salt and pepper to taste.

Beets away!

Enjoy your lovely summer beetroot and feta salad!

What is feta cheese?

Feta cheese originally comes from Greece.

It’s a brined curd white cheese, and it’s actually made from sheep’s milk or, in some cases, a mixture of sheep and goat’s milk.

Feta cheese is a soft cheese, and it’s usually bought in blocks and will be aged in brine.

Its got a great taste to it and is salty and tangy.

You can cut it into cubes, and it crumbles really well, so perfect for salads.

Is this recipe vegan?

It can easily be vegan if you replace the feta cheese with vegan feta cheese (more widely available in stores these days).

You may also like to try this vegan tahini salad.

What type of beetroot is best?

The fresher beets you use, the better!

We’ve used medium beets as they looked really good, but baby beetroot is really good too.

Typically, really large beetroot runs the risk of tasting ‘woody’.

How do I roast a beetroot?

Cooking beets is easy, and roasting beetroot is really simple!

You just pop them in foil, in the oven, and roast.

Is it ok to eat raw beetroot?

Yes, you can eat raw beetroot. Usually, it will be grated very finely on top of a freshly made salad.

You wouldn’t want to eat whole beetroot or beetroot wedges that are raw though; they’ll need to be cooked.

How do I make cucumber ribbons?

Cucumber ribbons are really easy to make and just take seconds.

Make sure your cucumber is washed, and then take a potato peeler and slice it down the length of your cucumber.

Continue until you see the seeds, and then simply turn the cucumber and repeat.

What salad leaves are best for this recipe?

We’ve used rocket and watercress.

We love the peppery taste that the rocket has, and the watercress has a similar taste but with a spicy flavor and is packed full of nutrients.

You could use baby spinach but if you’re more of a romaine lettuce or iceberg person, then why not use them?

It’ll change the flavor of the salad but it’ll still be delicious.

Substitutes for walnuts

If you haven’t got any walnuts for feta and beetroot salad then don’t worry, you can easily substitute them for our salad.

Try cashew nuts, pecans, or pine nuts. You could even scatter sunflower seeds instead.

If you like nuts, then make sure you bookmark our delicious nut roast recipe for the holiday season!

Can I speed this recipe up at all?

Absolutely!

Yes, you can; our roasted beetroot salad with feta cheese is really flexible.

Instead of roasting your own beetroot, you can use store-bought cooked beetroot or even canned beets.

If you use canned beets, just make sure they’re not pickled.

Although we have to say there’s nothing quite like freshly cooked beetroot, if you cut this step out, you can prepare your beetroot salad with feta in approximately 10 minutes.

However, don’t add the salad dressing to it, or it’ll go soggy.

Can I make this ahead?

There are three elements to this beetroot salad with feta cheese that you can make ahead.

Cook the beetroot and store it in the fridge overnight.

Make the dressing and store it in the fridge.

Chop the walnuts and store them in a ziplock bag ready to scatter when you are.

How do I store this?

At a push, you can keep this beetroot salad with feta in the fridge for 2 days in an airtight container.

Recipe notes and expert tips

• Speed hack
  Don’t feel like you have to roast the beetroots; if you prefer, you can buy vacuum-packed cooked beetroot.
• No waste
  If you use raw beetroot and they have good leaves on them, then don’t discard them; wash and chop them and use them in your salad.
• Wear gloves
  Beetroots stain, so if you don’t want a sea of red fingerprints all over your kitchen, either wear a pair of disposable gloves or make sure you wash your hands and your chopping board immediately after chopping.
• Don’t have any feta cheese?
  Use goat cheese instead.
• ExperimentThis beetroot salad recipe is very flexible; you can use green beans, avocado, chickpeas, baby spinach, or lettuce, and add a little lemon juice or orange juice.
• Don’t have a salad dressing bottle for your vinaigrette?
  Simply take a sterilized bottle with a lid, add the salad dressing ingredients, secure the lid, and shake well – job done.

More easy recipes for you to try

• Tomato, cucumber, and onion salad
• Caprese pasta salad
• Beetroot and grilled halloumi salad
• Indian onion salad
• Pico de gallo

We hope you enjoy making and eating our beetroot and feta salad and would love to hear how you got on with making it.

Please leave a comment below, and feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Try these…

Try this delicious Mediterranean quinoa salad from Wendy Polisi.

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