beet the heat

Recently I purchased a bunch of beautiful New Jersey red beets at Delicious Orchards. I would normal just cook until tender and dress with oil and vinegar. However, I wanted to dress them a bit more. I found on my New York Times cooking app a recipe by Julia Moskin for Marinated Beet Salad with Whipped Goat Cheese, yum! The beets are marinated with shallots, olive oil, sweet vinegar such as Barolo, balsamic or sherry. I happened to have some Carter and Cavero sherry vinegar on hand and used that. The goat cheese is creamed with a bit of olive oil, milk or heavy cream (I had heavy cream), white wine vinegar and seasoned with salt and pepper. 

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I was recently watching Sara’s Weeknight Meals on public broadcasting, when she mentioned that she steamed beets to cook them. I used my stainless steel colander inserted over my stainless steel Dutch oven pot to create a large steamer. It took approximately 45 minutes to get the beets tender. I thought this would keep my kitchen cooler rather than roasting them in the oven.
 
While the beets were steaming, I prepared the whipped goat cheese.  I suggest having the goat cheese sit on your counter for a few minutes to soften up a bit as it will make whipping the cheese easier. I used my hand held mixer to combine all the ingredients together.
 
For supper the other evening, I merely placed the beets on piece of Boston lettuce and added a few dollops of the delicious whipped goat cheese. It tastes much better if you have the whipped goat cheese at room temperature for a bit. The bite of the goat cheese is a great foil against the sweet red beets. It’s very refreshing on a hot summer night as a side dish to grilled steak.