Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad With Candied Walnuts

Chef's Overview

Dear Chefs, roasted beet and goat cheese salad with candied walnuts is the dish that talks beet skeptics into a second helping, thanks to earthy sweetness, tangy cheese, and a crunch that keeps every forkful interesting. Beets have a reputation for staining everything within reach, but a few small habits in the way we roast, peel, and slice keep the damage to a minimum. We start with a foil-wrapped roast that concentrates the natural sugars, finish with a skillet of maple walnuts, and bring it all together with a mustard-shallot vinaigrette. Along the way you will see why a small blade and a flat-edged vegetable knife make this salad easier than it looks. Plan on about an hour and a half from first scrub to final toss, most of which is the oven doing the work.

The Pink Fingerprints That Never Fully Wash Off

Somewhere in our test kitchen there is still a faint pink fingerprint on a cabinet door, and it is proof that beets always get the last word. One of us showed up to a beet-roasting session in a white shirt, which tells you everything about the confidence we bring to root vegetables. The shirt did not survive, but the salad that came out of that afternoon earned a permanent spot in our fall rotation.

What wins people over is the way roasting changes the beet. Raw, it can taste like a handful of damp garden soil, while a slow roast in its own steam turns it deep, sweet, and almost jammy. Pair that with creamy goat cheese, peppery arugula, and walnuts that crunch like toffee, and suddenly the vegetable people used to push to the edge of the plate disappears first. If you liked the sweet-and-salty tug of our Roasted Delicata Squash With Hot Honey and Feta, this salad plays the same game with a root instead of a squash.

Ingredients You'll Need

Everything on this list comes from the produce aisle and the pantry, and the only gear to set out before you begin is a rimmed sheet pan, foil, a skillet, a small whisk, and two knives you trust. We use a mix of red and golden beets because the colors look gorgeous together and the golden ones bleed far less. Choose beets that are roughly the same size so they finish roasting at the same time, and buy them with the greens attached if you can, since fresh tops are a sign of fresh roots.

For the Roasted Beets

• 2 pounds medium beets, red and golden mixed, about 6
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

For the Candied Walnuts

• 1 cup walnut halves
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• Pinch of cayenne pepper

For the Mustard-Shallot Vinaigrette

• 1 small shallot, minced
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste

For Assembling

• 5 ounces baby arugula
• 4 ounces fresh goat cheese, crumbled

Step 1: Heat the Oven and Trim the Beets

Set a rack in the middle of the oven and heat it to 400°F. Scrub the beets under cold running water, then trim the leafy tops down to about an inch and leave the tails on, because a beet that stays mostly whole bleeds far less in the oven. This is a good moment to reach for the Noir 60 Damascus Paring Knife, whose full-tang construction and 114 g build make it easy to nick away rough spots and hairy root ends without wrestling the beet. For more on how a small blade shapes clean trims, our guide on How Paring Knives Shape Perfect Trims covers the grip and angles we lean on.

Step 2: Roast the Beets in Foil

Toss the red beets and the golden beets separately, each group with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1/4 teaspoon of salt, then wrap each group in its own foil packet with the seam facing up. Set both packets on the sheet pan and roast for 50 to 60 minutes, until the tip of a knife slides in with no resistance, the same test you would use on a baked potato. Larger beets can take up to 70 minutes, so check the biggest one first. Open the packets carefully because the steam is hot, then let the beets rest for 15 to 20 minutes until you can handle them comfortably.

Step 3: Candy the Walnuts

While the beets rest, melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat and toast the walnuts in it for about 2 minutes, stirring often, until they smell nutty. Pour in the maple syrup, add the salt and cayenne, and keep stirring for 2 to 3 minutes, until the syrup thickens and clings to every walnut. Tip them onto a sheet of parchment, separate the clusters with a spoon, and let them cool for 10 minutes so they turn crisp. Pull them off the heat a touch earlier than feels right, since maple syrup goes from glossy to burnt in about ten seconds.

Step 4: Whisk the Mustard-Shallot Vinaigrette

Stir the minced shallot into the red wine vinegar in a small bowl and let it sit for 5 minutes, which softens the raw bite of the shallot. Whisk in the Dijon and honey, then stream in the extra virgin olive oil while whisking until the dressing looks glossy and thick. Season with salt and pepper, taste it on a piece of arugula rather than off the spoon, and leave it on the counter until the beets are ready.

Step 5: Peel and Slice the Beets

Once the beets are cool enough to handle, rub the skins off with a paper towel or your fingertips, and they should slip away like a loose jacket. Slice the golden beets first and the red ones last, so the red juice never touches the pale ones before they hit the platter. Our favorite tool here is the Ochre 61 Damascus Nakiri Knife, made from VG-10 Damascus steel at 61 HRC, with a flat blade edge that lets you push straight down through each beet into even half-inch wedges with no rocking. If you want to see why that flat profile gives such tidy results, take a look at Why Nakiri Knives Create the Most Even Vegetable Cuts.

Step 6: Build and Serve the Salad

Toss the arugula with about two thirds of the vinaigrette in a large bowl, then mound it on a wide platter. Tuck the golden beets in first, then the red beets, then crumble the goat cheese over the top in loose, uneven pieces. Scatter the candied walnuts last so they stay crunchy, drizzle the remaining dressing around the edges, and bring the platter to the table right away, while the arugula is still perky and the beets are slightly warm.

Salad Worth the Stained Fingertips

For years beets were the vegetable people politely pushed to the edge of the plate, and this salad is our argument for bringing them back to the center. A good roast, a little acid, something creamy, and something crunchy is a formula that works far beyond this one platter. Once the technique clicks, you will find yourself applying it to carrots, parsnips, and squash all season long. A tray of extra roasted beets keeps in the refrigerator for up to five days, which makes them the easiest head start on next week's lunches. Slice them cold over grain bowls, fold them into a sandwich with the leftover goat cheese, or just eat a wedge standing at the counter. Keep a dish towel nearby either way, because the pink fingerprints are part of the tradition.