Beet Salad with Feta Cheese and Citrus Balsamic Viniagrette

Colorful Crave-Worthy Salad

Have an aversion to beets? This is the cold beet salad recipe that will make you crave them. Cooked beetroots lightly dressed with a tart citrus-balsamic vinaigrette and topped with crumbled feta cheese and chopped cilantro. It’s an everyday salad disguised as a date-night or dinner party salad.

A beautiful salad in the colors of the Mexican flag, green, white, and red. If you have never prepared beets before it is far simpler than you may think.

How to Make Beet Salad

First, gather your ingredients.

You will need:

For the Salad

• 4 medium red beets or golden beets
• ¾ cup feta cheese
• 2 tbsp. finely chopped cilantro

For the Vinaigrette

• Juice of 1 orange
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp. honey
• ½ tbsp. dijon mustard
• ½ tsp. salt + plus as needed to taste
• 1 clove garlic

How to Choose Beets

When you are at the market buying beets look for ones that are deep in color and firm with few or no blemishes. Small to medium sized beets are more flavorful and tender. If the beets have a lot of soft spots and blemishes they are past their prime and you should avoid them.

Cooking the Beets

Cut the green tops off the beets. Cooking note: Save the beet greens for later if you would like because they are edible and delicious. Lightly boiled or sautéed are good ways to prepare them.

Place the beets in a large pot and cover with 2″ of water. Bring to a boil then reduce to low and cook for 45 minutes until they are fork tender.

Set the beets aside and allow to cool.

Peel the beets once they are cool to the touch.

Cut the beets into 1″ pieces.

Making the Beet Salad Dressing (Vinaigrette)

Make the vinaigrette while the beets are cooking. This gives the flavors of the dressing time to blend.

• In a small mixing bowl add the orange juice, lime juice, balsamic, vinegar, honey, and dijon mustard.
• Whisk the ingredients briskly while slowly pouring in the olive oil.
• Whisk vigorously until the ingredients have combined.
• Add the chopped garlic and salt. Whisk in incorporate.
• Taste the dressing and add salt to taste if needed.
• Set Aside.

Salad dressing tip: When we are adjusting the salt level in a salad dressing we tend to make it a little on the salty side because when you add the dressing to your salad the saltiness will even out.

Serving the Salad

• Divide the beets into 4 small salad bowls.
• Top with crumbled feta cheese and chopped cilantro.
• Lightly drizzle each salad with vinaigrette. (Shake well before dressing.)
• Serve lightly chilled.

Looking for the best beet salad? This may be it. Provecho!

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3.36 from 126 votes

Beet Salad Recipe with Feta Cheese and Citrus Balsamic Vinaigrette

Crave-worthy cold beet salad with a citrus balsamic vinaigrette topped with crumbled feta cheese and cilantro. Thought you didn't like beets? It will totally change your mind. It's a delicious, easy healthy salad.

Course Salad

Cuisine Mexican

Keyword beets, citrus dressing, feta cheese, salad

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 4 servings

Calories 168kcal

Author Andrés carnalla

Ingredients

Salad

• 4 medium beets red or golden
• ¾ cup feta cheese
• 2 tbsp. finely chopped cilantro

Vinaigrette

• Juice of 1 orange
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp. honey
• ½ tbsp. dijon mustard
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 clove garlic

Instructions

Beets

• Cut the tops off the beets. Place the beets in a large pot and cover with 2″ of water. Bring to a boil then reduce to low and cook for 45 minutes.
• Set the beets aside and allow to cool.
• Peel the beets once they are cool to the touch.
• Cut the beets into 1″ pieces.

Vinaigrette

• In a small mixing bowl add the orange juice, lime juice, balsamic, vinager, honey, and dijon mustard.
• Whisk the ingredients briskly while slowly pouring in the olive oil.
• Whisk vigorously until the ingredients have combined.
• Add the chopped garlic and salt. Whisk in incorporate.
• Taste the dressing and add salt to taste if needed.
• Set Aside.

Serving

• Divide the beets in 4 small salad bowls.
• Top with crumbled feta cheese and chopped cilantro.
• Lightly dress with vinaigrette dressing.
• Serve lightly chilled.

Notes

Subsitutions

• You can substitute goat cheese or ranchero cheese for the feta cheese. The goat cheese will give the salad a sharper taste and the ranchero cheese will give it a milder taste.
• You can substitute 1 tbsp. lemon juice for the lime juice.

Additions

• A tsp. of diced red onion in each bowl adds a little kick.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cup | Calories: 168kcal | Carbohydrates: 22g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 6g | Sodium: 368mg | Sugar: 18g

More Mexican Salads

Mexico has many great salads. Here are a few of our favorites. They go far beyond the bagged salad mixes.

• Cucumber Salad
• Spicy Fruit Salad
• Spicy Pineapple Salad
• Chayote and Zucchini Salad
• Cactus Salad
• Avocado Salad