Roasting fall vegetables brings out their sweetness, and it’s my favorite way to prepare beets.

Once roasted, these beets are great on their own, tossed in a vinaigrette, or sparkling like jewels in your favorite green salad. They can also adorn pizzas or make amazing additions to frittatas as well. On weekend mornings, we shred them and throw them into our homemade root vegetable hash, too, and then top them with runny poached eggs with a side of homemade toast. Mmmm. Hold on, I need to go make that right now. Be right back….

Okay, so it’s a popular thing to talk about roasting beets whole and then, once cooled, simply peeling away the skin with your fingers. It sounds so easy! Like, too-good-to-be-true easy. The one time I tried to roast beets this way, I ended up with purple staining everything and beets with stubborn pieces of skin that wouldn’t come off. Perhaps I did it wrong. I’m okay with that. But my preferred method for roasting them is to peel them first, cut them to my desired size, and then roast them.

With all the delicious ways to use these roasted sweet gems, it’s hard to pick just one recipe. But I will: The one that keeps me dreaming of beets is roasted beet salad. Here’s how to make it:

Ingredients:

4 medium to large beets, peeled, tough ends and roots removed, and chopped into 1-inch chunks

3 Tablespoons oil (olive, canola, LOCAL sunflower)

Salt & Pepper to taste

Red onions, cut into small slivers (this is optional, but, once you taste it with the onions becomes no longer optional)

4 0z. Goat cheese (I prefer Willow Moon‘s award-winning cheeses or VT Creamery) – feel free to experiment with flavors like herb or lemon, too!

Toss the cut up beets and onions in the oil and season them to taste. Roast your cut up beets and onion slivers (if using – which you should) covered at 375* for 45 minutes, or until fork tender. Let them cool to warm-ish, then crumble the goat cheese over the top, and mix a few times to stir it up. The goat cheese becomes warm and soft and everything lovely that a cheese should be.

Oh, and fear not if cheese is not your thing! This salad can be made dairy-free or vegan-friendly quite easily. Instead of goat cheese try toasted walnuts, or shredded carrots, raisins, cut up apples, or anything else you can dream up. Arugula or spinach would also wilt nicely into this soft, warm salad.  It’s the beets that really shine in this recipe! Everything else is just a supporting act.

Enjoy!