We all struggle from time to time to come up with fresh ideas in the kitchen.  I rarely have trouble with food inspiration as I have lots of food bloggers to follow and receive daily emails from various food/recipe websites.  I still find myself getting into a rut, however.  A recent email really made me smile and hooked me into opening the post to read further.  It touted that everything old can be new again, focusing on recipes from the 1980’s and 90’s.  It was fun for me to harken back to that time remembering cookbooks I frequently searched through to find recipes.  That was well before the constant utilization of web searches to find recipes.  I have cleared out a great many of my cookbooks, but I still have lots of favorites from that time. Some of the featured recipes included baked brie with fruit and jam on top, pasta salads with asparagus and sun dried tomatoes and arranged salads with chicken and canned mandarin oranges.

Another one of the recipes the email highlighted was a salad that used a raspberry vinaigrette and field greens, which were just becoming popular at that time.  Yet another recipe was for fried goat cheese rounds with pickled beets in a salad. What genious it would be to combine those two recipes!   Adding fried cheese really upped the game.  It had been quite some time since I made a raspberry vinaigrette and fried goat cheese rounds.  I just happened to have some goat cheese that needed to be used up (it was getting rather ripe).  I also keep homemade pickled beets in my refrigerator for snacking and for salads. And, I had some organic greens that always need to be used rather quickly as they have a short refrigerator life.

So, I dug through recipes and did some additional online searches and came up with a good combination of recipes to make this salad for dinner last week.  We also prepared grillled salmon (in pretty frigid Ohio winter weather – and in the dark! – Thank you to my husband, Dave!), and sautéed swiss chard with chick peas.  The swiss chard was in the freezer, flash boiled and freezer bagged up just for using in the middle of winter when local greens are unavailable.

The recipe is a definite combination of those I found with a little tweaking on each.  The goat cheese rounds can be made a little bit ahead of time, but probably not more than a half hour or so.  They would need a little reheating in a fry pan to ensure the crust keeps its crunch and the cheese stays a little soft on the inside.  The recipe actually called for grapeseed oil to fry the cheese rounds in.  I have some that needs to be used up as the shelf life of this oil is not very long.  It’s got a nice light flavor and can handle fairly high heat without burning.  Don’t fret if you don’t have that oil.  I would recommend a combination of a canola or light oil with maybe just a little butter for flavor.  If you use too much butter it will burn.

I used panko bread crumbs with just a little bit of salt and pepper.  You could add herbs to the breadcrumb mixture, but I prefer the creamy taste of the goat cheese without added herbs.

You need to dip the cheese rounds in eggs, then into the breadcrumb mixture. This step can be done about an hour ahead.  Refrigerate the coated rounds until you plan to fry them.

I happened to have some raspberry vinegar on hand that is surely more than a year old, but it tasted just fine and did not have any sediment.  The salad dressing is a bit on the sour side with some sugar for sweetness and can easily adjusted by using more oil – or less vinegar.

Last, I really like added crunch in a salad, so I quickly toasted some pepita seeds (green pumpkin seeds purchased in a natural food store).  They added a really nice nutty flavor to the salad.

One additional caveat:  If you don’t want to make your own pickled beets, there are plenty of options in the grocery store available to purchase.  I personally think they are too sweet, or have too many different seasonings (like cinnamon or clove) – but fear of making the homemade beets shouldn’t keep you from trying this recipe. I offer several tips in the recipe – but the best tip, is to be sure to use plenty of paper towels to help peel the beets.  The skins come off easily by rubbing them with the paper towels – and the paper towels really absorb the red coloring too.

Perhaps some of you will walk down memory lane with me and try this recipe.  It offers a beautiful presentation and tastes delicious for a weekenight at home – or for guests on a special occasion.

Fried Goat Cheese and Beet Salad

There are really three different recipes here - that can be used separately, in combination, or all together.

The pickled beets can be stored in the refrigerator for several months. The recipe, including roasting time will take 2 hours
The fried goat cheese should be made within a half hour of serving. It will take approximately 10 minutes to prepare these (longer if you need to refrigerate the rounds before frying)
The salad dressing can easily be made a day ahead. Refrigerate, then bring to room temperature before serving.
Salad assembly will take just a few minutes to clean the lettuce an plate it up!

This recipe will make enough beets for multiple salads, dressing for 8 cups of greens (enough for 4-6 people) and goat cheese for 4-6 servings.

Ingredients

For the beets:

• 2 pounds beets trimmed and washed
• olive oil for drizzling
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the Pickling Liquid

• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 to 4 tablespoons sugar or honey
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the Fried Cheese:

4 – 8 oz log of goat cheese. Sliced and formed into patties approximately 2 to 3″ in diameter and 3/4″ thick.

1 egg, beaten

2/3 cup panko bread crumbs

salt and pepper to season breadcrumbs

vegetable oil or grapeseed oil

For the Salad:

• 1/4 cup raspberry vinegar (raspberry balsamic is good if you can find it too)
• 1 tablespoon minced shallot
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon sugar
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon salt
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon ground black pepper
• ¹⁄₂ cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. dijon mustard
• 4 cups mixed gield greens
• 1/4 cup pepita seeds, toasted (or another nut of choice – pecans, and walnuts are good)

Instructions

For the pickled beets:  Preheat oven to 375ºF. Trim stems to base of each beet, then drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Wrap 2-3 beets in a single layer into a double layer of foil.  Place packets of beets on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 60 to 90 minutes, until tender. Remove from oven, open foil and set aside until cool enough to handle.  Peel cool beets (a paper towel makes this very easy) and cut into desired chunks.   Wearing rubber gloves is sometimes a good idea too – so your fingers don’t turn pink!  Or, just wash your hands well after peeling.  I typically go through several paper towels so that the paper towels absorb most of the red color.  Transfer beets to a clean, 1-quart canning jar.

For the liquid:  Combine vinegar, water and sugar or honey in a 2-cup glass pitcher.  Heat in microwave for about 2 minutes then whisk until sugar or honey has dissolved. Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Pour warm pickling liquid over beets in jar (you may have a little left over), cover and refrigerate.  Refrigerate for several hours or overnight before eating.

For the Fried Goat Cheese:  If goat cheese is soft and room temperature, place rounds into freezer for 10-15 minutes until they are more solid. Wisk egg in a shallow bowl, and place breadcrumbs, salt and pepper into another.  Dip each goat cheese round into the egg, then roll in the breadcrumb mixture.  Set each round aside onto a clean plate.   (This can be done about an hour before frying – just refrigerate coated rounds until ready to fry).  Heat vegetable or grapeseed oil in a fry pan.  I used about 4 TBS of oil for two people.  Heat oil up on medium high heat.  Fry 3 to 4 rounds at a time in the pan until first side is golden brown.  Carefully flip so the other side can brown.  This should take 2 to 4 minutes per side.  Remove rounds to a paper towel lined plate to absorb excess oil.

For the Salad Dressing:  Place all ingredients except for greens and seeds/nuts into a lidded glass jar.  Shake the ingredients well to blend/imulsify.

For the salad assembly:  Place greens into a large salad bowl.  Shake dressing once again before pouring desired amount onto greens.  Toss the greens lightly in the bowl.  Sprinkle greens with toasted seeds or nuts, place desired amount of pickled beets on top, then place goat cheese rounds on top.  Individual salad plates can easily be assembled as well.  Just place greens onto plates first after tossing with dressing in a larger bowl.

Notes

These recipes were loosely inspired from:

salad dressing:  Genius Kitchen

pickled Beets – Pinch and Swirl

Fried Goat Cheese – Nutmeg Nanny