Colorful Crave-Worthy Salad
Have an aversion to beets? This is the salad 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 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
First, gather your ingredients.
You will need:
For the Salad
- 4 medium 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
- 1 clove garlic
Preparing the Beets
- Cut the tops off the beets and discard the tops.
- 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.
Making the 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.
- Set Aside.
Serving the Salad
- Divide the beets into 4 small salad bowls.
- Top with crumbled feta cheese and chopped cilantro.
- Lightly dress with vinaigrette. (Shake well before dressing.)
- Serve at room temperature or lightly chilled.
Provecho!
Beet Salad with Feta Cheese and Citrus Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe
Ingredients
Salad
- 4 medium beets
- 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.
- Set Aside.
Serving
- Divide the beets in 4 small salad bowls.
- Top with crumbled feta cheese and chopped cilantro.
- Lightly dress with vinaigrette.
- Serve at room temperature or lightly chilled.
Notes
- 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.
Nutrition
More Mexican Salads
Mexico has many great salads. Here are a few of our favorites. They go far beyond the bagged salad mixes.
julie says
I already love beets, so this looks perfect!
Sam says
Very simple but delicious! Your photos are beautiful and helped follow the recipe. I absolutely loved the dressing I’ll be using that for other salads too, thanks for sharing!
Burt says
You need to be careful not to overcook beets as they are pain to peel otherwise. There must a trick on peeling beets that I’m missing. My dressing wasn’t quite perfect. You need to measure everything out better I guess. Very good overall. My first time cooking beets although I love them. Thank you.
Kelly says
Emailing this beet salad recipe to myself
Jessica Watson says
Made it over the 4th of july and it was definitely delicious! Thank you so much!
Douglas Cullen says
Awesome. I glad you liked it!
Cassandra Pope says
Delish!
T C says
This is so delicious. One does not even need to follow ‘amounts’. That’s an excellent recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Elisabeth says
Best beet salad ever. What a delightful combination with cilantro and feta. But salad dressing is my new favorite for all kinds of salads.
M says
are the beets supposed to be fully submerged under water or just 2β of water in the pot?
Wil says
Great! But discard the beet green tops?!!! π²π©π no! Beet greens are delicious cooked! Donβt discard them!