Warm beetroot, fig and goats cheese salad done right

I roasted four bunches of baby beetroot last Sunday and had beetroot juice on my forearms for two days. Worth it. There’s a version of this salad in half the cafes on Beaumont Street in Hamilton right now, and most of them are using the vacuum-packed stuff because it’s faster. You can taste the difference in about one bite, and not in a good way.

This is a warm beetroot, fig and goats cheese salad, and it’s the sort of thing I put on the pass in my restaurant days when I wanted something that looked generous but didn’t need forty minutes of fiddly plating. It still doesn’t. It just needs you to actually roast the beetroot instead of steaming it in a bag from the fridge section.

Why beetroot deserves better than a jar

Pickled beetroot has its place — on a burger, fair enough — but roasting it whole in its skin concentrates the sugars and gives you that deep, almost caramelised earthiness that raw or boiled beetroot just doesn’t get near. The skin protects the flesh while it cooks low and slow, and you peel it afterwards while it’s still warm, which is a job nobody enjoys but everybody’s glad they did.

Beetroot’s also one of those vegetables people forget to eat outside of a sandwich. Healthdirect lists it as a solid source of folate and dietary fibre, and if you’ve read our piece on why fibre matters more than most of us think, you’ll know I bang on about this constantly. It’s not a superfood in the marketing sense of that word — I don’t love that word — it’s just a vegetable that works hard for very little effort.

Getting the beetroot right

Don’t muck about with tinfoil parcels stuffed full of aromatics you’ll throw away anyway. Trim the leaves off, leave about two centimetres of stem so the colour doesn’t bleed out everywhere, wash off the dirt, and wrap each beetroot loosely in foil with a splash of red wine vinegar and a sprig of thyme. Into a 200°C oven they go, on a tray, for 45 minutes to an hour depending on size. You’ll know they’re done when a skewer goes in with no resistance.

Let them sit for ten minutes wrapped, then peel with your hands under running water, or with a paper towel if you don’t want purple fingers for the rest of the day. This is the one part of the recipe you cannot rush. Undercooked beetroot is chalky and honestly not worth eating.

Ingredients

• 6 baby beetroot, mixed colours if your greengrocer has them, leaves trimmed
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar, plus 1 tbsp extra for the dressing
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 4 fresh figs, ripe but firm
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp honey
• 100g soft goats cheese, at room temperature
• 60g walnuts, roughly chopped
• 100g rocket leaves, washed
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Zest of half an orange
• Sea salt and cracked black pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Wrap each beetroot loosely in foil with a splash of vinegar and a sprig of thyme. Roast for 45 to 60 minutes until a skewer slides through with no resistance.
2. Rest the beetroot for 10 minutes still wrapped, then peel while warm. Cut into wedges.
3. While the beetroot cooks, toast the walnuts in a dry pan over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, tossing often. Tip onto a plate and set aside.
4. Get your pan properly hot, add the butter, and once it’s foaming, place the figs cut side down. Drizzle with honey and cook for 90 seconds until caramelised at the edges. Don’t crowd the pan or they’ll steam instead of char.
5. Whisk the olive oil, remaining vinegar, orange zest, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Taste as you go — you want it sharp enough to cut through the goats cheese, not just oily.
6. Arrange the rocket on a platter, top with warm beetroot wedges and figs, crumble over the goats cheese, and scatter with walnuts. Spoon the dressing over the top and serve straight away, while the beetroot’s still warm.

The fig window and what to do outside it

Fresh figs in Australia run roughly from late summer into early autumn, and outside that window you’re paying a premium for fruit that’s been in cold storage since before Christmas. If figs aren’t in good nick at the market, don’t force it. Swap them for roasted pear or a handful of dried figs soaked in warm water for ten minutes. It’s not the same dish, but it’s not a lesser one either, provided you don’t try to pass off a hard, unripe fig as the real thing.

Serving it as a proper lunch

Serves 4 as a light main, or 6 as a side alongside something like the chargrilled chicken with salsa verde if you’ve got people who need more than salad on the table. I’ve also served it warm straight from the pan with a slice of good sourdough on the side and called it dinner, which nobody complained about.

If you want to build a proper spread around it, this sits nicely next to the chickpea and roast capsicum salad or the trio of chargrilled heirloom carrots with salsa verde — three roasted-veg dishes, three different textures, and you’ve done almost no actual cooking beyond turning the oven on once. The CSIRO’s vegetable intake data suggests most Australian adults are still falling short of the recommended serves per day, and dishes like this are an easy, unglamorous way to close that gap without pretending a smoothie is dinner.

A variation worth trying

Swap the goats cheese for a firmer marinated feta if you want something that holds its shape better on a warm plate, and add a small handful of pumpkin seeds instead of walnuts if that’s what’s in the pantry. I’ve also done this with roasted golden beetroot only, for people who find the purple stains a bit much on a white plate — it’s a fair complaint, honestly, and golden beetroot has a slightly milder, less earthy flavour that some people prefer anyway.

This isn’t a fussy dish once you’ve done the hard yards on the beetroot. It’s one tray, one hot pan, and a bit of patience while things roast. That’s most of what a decent Sunday cook actually is.

— Dave Forsythe, Golden Door Living kitchen