Warm beetroot, fig and goat’s cheese salad

Beetroot gets a bad rap in restaurant kitchens. Too many chefs vac-pack it, steam it into submission, then plate it cold and call it done. I spent three seasons cooking at a bistro off Broke Road in the Hunter Valley where the rule was simple: if you can’t taste the vegetable, you’ve failed the vegetable. That stuck with me. This salad is my answer to the bland beet-on-a-plate problem.

Why this combination works

Beetroot has a deep, earthy sweetness that needs contrast. Figs give you a second sweetness, but also texture and a slight jammy acidity when they hit heat. The goat’s cheese cuts through both with its clean, lactic sharpness. Then you need something peppery — rocket does it — and a dressing with enough acid to pull it all together without drowning anything. It’s not complicated. The trick is in the sequencing and in not being timid with your pan.

Fresh figs are available in most Coles and independent grocers from late summer through to April. Dried figs will technically work, but honestly the texture goes wrong and you lose the caramelisation moment. Don’t muck about with a substitute here if you can avoid it.

Ingredients

Serves 4 as a light lunch, or 2 as a generous main

• 600 g medium beetroot (about 4-5 beets), scrubbed but not peeled
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 4 fresh figs, halved lengthways
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 100 g soft goat’s cheese (chèvre), crumbled
• 80 g rocket leaves
• 30 g toasted walnuts, roughly broken
• 2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, roughly torn
• Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper

For the dressing:

• 2 tablespoons good red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon honey
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 200°C fan-forced. Wrap the beetroot individually in foil with a small splash of water and a pinch of salt inside each parcel. Roast on the middle shelf for 50-60 minutes until a skewer goes through without resistance. Time varies by size, so check at 45 minutes. Let them cool for 10 minutes, then peel — the skins will slip off easily with a bit of kitchen paper. Cut into wedges, roughly 2 cm thick. Keep them warm.
2. While the beetroot rests, make the dressing. Whisk the red wine vinegar, olive oil, Dijon and honey together in a small bowl until emulsified. Season, taste, adjust. Set aside.
3. Get your pan properly hot — cast iron is ideal, heavy stainless will do. You want it dry and smoking before anything goes in. Add one tablespoon of olive oil, swirl to coat, then lay the fig halves cut-side down. Don’t move them. Leave them for 90 seconds to 2 minutes until they caramelise and go golden. Drizzle the honey over the top, then flip them for just 20 seconds on the skin side. Remove. This is a fast job. Overcooked figs turn to mush and you’ll lose the point of them.
4. In a large bowl, toss the warm beetroot wedges with half the dressing. Season well.
5. Arrange the rocket on a serving platter or individual plates. Lay the dressed beetroot over the top. Nestle the caramelised figs in among the beet pieces. Scatter the crumbled goat’s cheese and walnuts over everything, then spoon a little more dressing over the whole plate. Finish with the torn parsley and a good crack of black pepper.
6. Taste as you go at every stage. The dressing should have enough acidity to cut through the sweetness of both the beet and the fig. If it doesn’t, add a few more drops of vinegar before it hits the plate.

A note on the goat’s cheese

Soft chèvre is the right call here. Firm goat’s cheese won’t melt into the warmth of the dish; it just sits there in chunks. Look for something labelled chèvre or soft goat’s curd from the deli section. Meredith Dairy in Victoria makes a good one that’s widely stocked — decent flavour without being aggressively barn-yard, which is fine for a salad but can tip over into overwhelming if you’re not careful.

If you genuinely can’t stand goat’s cheese, a good-quality ricotta or a Persian feta will work. But I’ll be straight with you: they’re not the same. The lactic edge of the chèvre is doing a specific job in this dish.

Serving ideas and what to put alongside it

This salad holds its own as a light main. For a more substantial lunch, serve it alongside a couple of slices of good sourdough — you want something with a decent crust to stand up to the dressing. It also works well next to a piece of fish. Something clean and white; see our blue-eye cod with carrot puree if you want a pairing that doesn’t fight the beet flavours.

If you’re putting this on a table for a group, lay it out on a wide platter rather than individual plates. It looks better, and people can navigate the components according to what they want more of.

A dry Hunter Valley rosé is not a bad idea alongside. Just saying.

Variations worth trying

Swap the walnuts for pepitas if you’ve got a nut allergy at the table. They toast quickly in a dry pan and give you a similar crunch with a slightly earthier flavour. You could also add a small handful of puy lentils, cooked and still warm, to bulk the salad out without changing its character much. I’ve done this for weekend retreats where the salad needs to carry people through until dinner and the extra protein earns its place.

In autumn, when figs fall out of season, roasted pear is an honest substitute. Halve the pears, core them, roast cut-side up at 190°C with a little olive oil and honey for 20 minutes. The caramelisation isn’t quite the same but the sweetness-and-acid logic still holds. Related: if you’re looking for other ways to eat well through the cooler months, this piece on taking time out in autumn has some thoughts worth reading before you start planning your menus.

The healthy-eating case for eating this regularly

Beetroot is one of the more genuinely useful vegetables you can put on a plate. It’s high in dietary nitrates, folate and manganese, and contains betalain pigments that have been studied for their antioxidant properties. Eat for Health, the Australian Government’s nutrient reference database, puts beets squarely in the category of vegetables that contribute to a varied, plant-dense diet — which is what we’re building toward here, one meal at a time.

The combination of rocket, walnuts and olive oil gives you a decent hit of polyphenols and unsaturated fats. The goat’s cheese adds protein and calcium. This is a salad that actually does something, rather than just being light-coloured and virtuous-looking on the plate.

If you’re thinking about gut health alongside this, our piece on good food for gut health is a reasonable next read. And if vegetable-forward cooking is becoming more of a habit, the chargrilled heirloom carrots with salsa verde and the savoury quinoa and warrigal tart are both worth keeping in your rotation.

According to Nutrition Australia, vegetables and legumes should make up the largest proportion of meals across the day — and yet most people still treat them as a side rather than the main event. This salad is a small argument against that habit.

Anyway. Get your beetroot in the oven early, keep your pan hot for the figs, and taste the dressing before it goes anywhere near the plate. The rest takes care of itself.

— Dave Forsythe, Golden Door Living kitchen