Beetroot And Feta Salad - Restaurant Quality

Recipe: Beetroot And Feta Salad Recipe »

This beetroot and feta salad is a flavour packed dish inspired by Santorini. Sweet roasted beetroot is paired with creamy feta, bright citrusy orange gel and crunchy caramelised pecans for the perfect balance of flavours and textures. Finished with fresh dill, this elegant salad is ideal for entertaining and can be made ahead of time for easy hosting.

About This Beetroot And Feta Salad

This Beetroot and Feta Salad is a divine way to serve beetroot. It was inspired by a Beetroot Feta Salad we ate in Santorini that still sticks in my mind. Do you know when some dishes are so delicious that you will remember them forever and want to recreate them?

This uses roasted beetroots paired with Greek feta, orange gel, caramelised pecans and lacy croutons is finished with fresh herbs. The earthy sweet beetroot goes so well with the salty feta and the orange gel is the dressing needed while the pecans and croutons give it a sweet crunch. It may seem like a lot of bits but they can all be done ahead of time and assembled within 5 minutes.

You can just leave this beetroot and feta salad on the table for an hour or so or store it in the fridge if you need to make it for later! I used the caramelised nuts from my very popular rocket pear salad.

Video How To Make Beetroot And Feta Salad

Video: How to Make a Restaurant Quality Beetroot and Feta Salad

Ingredients For Beetroot And Feta Salad

Beetroot - I have to confess that nowadays I often buy pre-cooked beetroot. It increases our consumption of beetroot which can only be a good thing. Otherwise see this recipe for how to roast beetroot from scratch.

Feta - I used Persian feta because that was what I had in the fridge. Greek feta also works.

Pecans - I used pecans for this but you can also use walnuts.

Sugar - Use caster sugar for best results for caramelising and the gel.

Butter - Use salted butter.

Orange Juice - Fresh orange juice (aka non reconstituted) works best. No need to strain for pulp.

Agar agar - This is a vegetarian version of gelatine and works well to make gel. It is found at Asian grocery stores.

Herbs - I used some fresh dill or mint on top. Chives also works well.

Baguette - I love making lacy, thin croutons using a rustic white baguette. Baguettes with lots of air bubbles and a lacy texture make the best restaurant style croutons!

Tips For Making Beetroot And Feta Salad

1 - This salad is also pretty with a mix of golden and red beetroot.

2 - I often make double or triple a batch of caramelised nuts as they are so good to add into salads. Once made, they will last for 2-3 weeks in an airtight jar.

3 - Add the caramelised pecans and croutons just before serving so that they retain their crunch.

4 - Measuring agar is hard as you just need 1 gram which is around half of 3/4 teaspoon aka 3/8 of a teaspoon. I use my kitchen scale but add agar very slowly. I find that if you wait a few seconds for the ingredient's weight to register then you'll get an accurate read. Be sparing with the agar, too much and it will set hard and won't blend into a gel.

5 - My favourite croutons are made with a rustic white baguette. The key is to slice them very, very thinly using a sharp bread knife (cutting them from the bottom side up also helps as the crown can be hard to cut). Then toast until golden and drizzle with olive oil and salt. I often make a big box of these croutons using half of a baguette (baguettes are best eaten on the day and go stale quickly).

Other beetroot salad recipes to try next are: Beetroot, Ricotta and Pistachio Salad, Roasted Beet and Orange Salad, Finnish Rosolli beetroot salad or Farro Beetroot Salad.

Beetroot And Feta Salad Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves: 6 as a side dish

Ingredients Needed

• 500g/1.1lb beetroot, roasted
• 100g/3.5oz Greek fetta
• 1/4 red onion sliced
• A few mint leaves
• Salt and black pepper

For Caramelised Pecans

• 50g/1.7ozs pecan pieces (break up or chop up into small pieces)
• 15g/0.5oz caster or superfine sugar
• 1 teaspoon/5g/0.17oz butter

For Orange Gel

• 100g/3.5 fl oz orange juice
• 1g/0.03oz (around 3/8 teaspoon) agar agar
• 20g/0.7 oz caster or superfine sugar

Croutons

• 12 thin slices of rustic white baguette
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• Salt

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 NUTS - Line a baking tray with parchment. Place a non stick pan on medium heat and add the sugar and butter and stir. When the butter has melted add the pecans and stir to coat the nuts with the sugar constantly turning them and coating them. When the sugar has caramelised and the nuts are coated, scoop the nuts onto the parchment lined tray and separate using the spatula. When they cool they'll harden up to become crunchy. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Step 2 ORANGE GEL - Whisk the orange juice, agar agar and sugar together. Heat on medium heat in a saucepan and when it starts boiling, remove it from the heat. Pour into a bowl and refrigerate or leave at room temperature to set. Place in a blender and process or use an immersion blender to liquify. The gel should become a glossy, pipeable consistency. Store in the fridge.

Step 3 CROUTONS - Turn the baguette bottom side up and slice the baguette very thinly. Toast in a grill set to medium until lightly golden. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

Step 4 ASSEMBLE - Cut beetroot into bite sized wedges and arrange on a serving plate. Add red onion slices and then crumble feta on top and distribute evenly. Then place the orange gel in a piping bag (a ziplock bag with a hole in a corner snipped also works) and pipe dabs of gel all over the beetroot. Sprinkle with caramelised pecans, place croutons and finish with some mint or dill. Drizzle with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper.

Personal Note

A lot of people are talking about the march of AI and as a recipe developer I must say that I am very, very concerned about it. I hate that that they can just take your recipe and rip it off and there is no recourse or compensation. It feels like being robbed.

Having said that I hadn't actually tried an AI recipe until this. I was testing out this beetroot feta salad and decided to make the orange gel. I decided to use the recipe provided by google's Gemini just to test it out as it just needed three ingredients: agar, orange juice and sugar and took less than 5 minutes active cooking time.

I made it according to Gemini's directions and it was a fail. The gemini recipe specified double the amount of agar than needed and instead of a silky gel, I got a hard jelly that was impossible to blend up. I ended up finding one on youtube by Chef Miller that worked better and was made by a real human!

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried an AI recipe and how did it go?