Beetroot, Pear & Goats Cheese Salad

Drizzled with local honey and extra virgin olive oil, this recipe for Beetroot, Pear and Goats Cheese Salad brings an interesting and complementary range of flavours to the dinner table. Served in large chunks, it’s a salad perfect for sharing with others as a starter, or even main meal.

These days, salads come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes I wonder whether “salad” in even the right turn of phrase at all. Still, since it’s such an all-encompassing term, there is more than a little room for variety. And so, we return to the ‘large chunks’…

Most salad recipes – even potato salads – offer something uniform; you’re presented a dish and, though delicious, each mouthful taken contains more-or-less the same components. Arrange things in large chunks however, and you get the sense of being able to pick and choose the flavours you enjoy in every mouthful.

In terms of flavours combining earthy beetroot, sweet pear and a pungent goats cheese provides a wonderful contrast of sensation. Just make sure the pears you use are perfectly ripe. There’s nothing worse than a firm pear that hasn’t been allowed to develop its natural sugars. Getting that right is the difference between salad failure and sublime success.

For more salad ideas check out my Sweet Potato & Chicken Salad, Roasted Radish & Spring Onion Salad and Blood Orange & Fennel Salad…

Beetroot, Pear & Goats Cheese Salad

Serves 2-4

Ingredients:

• 2 cooked beetroots, in large chunks
• 150g firm goats cheese, in large chunks
• 2 pears, in large chunks
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
• a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
• a little salt and pepper

Method:

1. Chop your beetroot, pear and goats cheese into chunks of around 2cm. Arrange on a plate, serving platter or chopping board.
2. Drizzle with honey, before adding a few drops of extra virgin olive oil. Finally, finish with parsley and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Serve with a freshly baked loaf of bread.

Cost: Depending on your taste in goats cheese this salad shouldn’t set you back very much at all. A good, farmhouse goats cheese will be rather expensive, but you can pick up a decent round for a very reasonable price indeed. The salad photographed set us back around £3, but you could serve it up for cheaper.