Roasted beet and arugula salad with maple balsamic vinaigrette, pecans, goat cheese, and dried cranberries is a flavorful and healthful salad recipe that will get even the biggest beet naysayers to eat those beets!
Check out these beet wedgies!
This isn’t exactly the first, second, third, or even forth beet salad I’ve shared with you…Beet salad is kind of a revolving thing ’round these parts. But you guys, this salad is meaty.
For this easy nutritious salad recipe, I like serving the beets warm – fresh out of the oven! – with peppery arugula, goat cheese, dried cranberries, maple candied pecans, and balsamic vinaigrette.
The beets are so juicy, sweet, and meaty that they make the salad feel filling – plus, they are packed with flavor.
Toasted maple pecans and dried cranberries add all sorts of warmth and oomph to the arugula salad, making this plate a legit entrée salad.
A homemade Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette is the perfect dressing for this warm beet salad. It’s tangy, sweet, and ties all of the ingredients together famously!
You can always add animal protein to the salad to make it a more filling meal, or keep it as a side dish to make any meal special.
And the beets…
Have you noticed how amazing beets are when they are in season?
First off, they are HUGE! Secondly, they are juicy and sweet. And finally (here’s the kicker), they taste far less earthy than usual. In-season beets are absolutely incredible. Plus, I am CONVINCED they’re an aphrodisiac.
Health Benefits of Beets:
Beets are LOADED with Vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and enzymes. They contain (in order of abundance) folate, manganese, potassium, copper, magnesium, vitamin C, iron, vitamin B6. This nutrient profile elevates your vitamins and replenishes your nutrient tank. They are also a natural anti-inflammatory, which helps calm your cells and brings them back to a state of balance (homeostasis).
Beets are full of betalains, which are antioxidants that help cleanse your system of damaged cells. Beets are full of natural sugar. Because the sugar is coupled with fiber, your body recognizes it as an incredible source of fuel. The fiber helps the body process the sugars efficiently and slowly, which provides sustained energy to your system. For you athletic souls out there, beets are a marvelous source of carbohydrate.
How to Roast Beets:
There are many ways you can roast beets. You can roast them the same way you do a whole potato by poking them with a fork, wrapping them in foil and roasting at 400 degrees F for about 90 minutes.
I personally prefer to chop the beets before roasting them, then wrap the chopped wedges in a foil packet. Place the foil packet on a baking sheet and roast for 35 to 40 minutes. The result is still nice soft, sweet, juicy beets, but in half the time.
How to Make Roasted Beet Arugula Salad:
Begin by roasting the beets using your preferred method (either option 1 or option 2 from above).
While the beets are roasting, make the vinaigrette and toast the pecans.
Once the beets are out of the oven, simply arrange all of the salad ingredients on a plate and drizzle with the maple balsamic vinaigrette. BOOM! salad!
As an alternative, you can toss everything together in a large serving bowl until everything is well coated in dressing.
Recipe Adaptations:
- Use spinach or green of choice instead of arugula.
- Use any type of cheese you would like – blue cheese and feta are amazing too!
- Replace pecans with walnuts or almonds.
- Keep the pecans raw or roasted and skip the candying step.
- Add salmon, roasted or rotisserie chicken for protein.
For those who aren’t in love with beets, this is the perfect time of year to revisit them, since they are in season. If you’re new to beets, Cooking Light has a great Guide to Beets article, which tells everything you could want to know about beet picking, storage, and prep.
More Delicious Beet Recipes:
- Roasted Beet Salad with Whipped Ricotta and Citrus Dressing
- Roasted Beet and Herbed Vegan Ricotta Crostini
- Beet Pesto Pizza with Kale and Goat Cheese
- Broccoli Beet and Kale Brown Rice Bowls with Pesto
- Roasted Beet and Garlic Hummus
Get your beet wedge on!
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Roasted Beet Salad with Goat Cheese and Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette
Ingredients
For the Salad:
- 16 ounces baby arugula
- 3 large beets peeled and roasted
For the Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette:
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons stone ground mustard
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Maple Toasted Pecans:
- 1 cup raw pecans
- 2 tsp avocado oil
- 2 Tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
For Serving:
- 1/2 cup goat cheese crumbles or feta cheese
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries juice-sweetened recommended
- Fresh cracked pepper
Instructions
Roast the Beets:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Scrub the beets and wrap each in aluminum foil. Place beets on a baking sheet and roast until very soft when poked with a fork, about 90 minutes. Allow beets to cool enough to handle. Unwrap them from the foil, peel them using a potato peeler or paring knife, and chop them into wedges.
Make the Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette:
- Add all ingredients for the vinaigrette to a small blender and blend until smooth.
Toast the Pecans:
- Add the ingredients for the maple toasted pecans to a small skillet and heat over medium-high. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the pure maple syrup comes to a full boil, begins to burn off, and the nuts become toasted and sticky. Be careful to keep a watchful eye on the nuts, and constantly stir to avoid burning them!
Prepare the salad:
- Add the arugula to a large serving bowl and toss in desired amount of Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette.
- Serve salad with roasted beet wedges, toasted pecans, dried cranberries, and goat cheese.
Notes
Nutrition
I don’t even like beets that much but I am so down for this super fall themed salad!
So glad to hear you’re jonesing after the salad – it really is magnificent, and beets have been so fab lately! Enjoy!
I’ll take a free salad any day. Beets are one of my favorite veggies, and I absolutely love them roasted. Mmm, that vinaigrette takes it over the top.
The vinaigrette is amazeballs, girl! So slurpable, it’s not even funny.
I friggin love reading what you write and staring at your pretty pictures. Can we take a vaca break and brew kombucha, make homemade soap, and douse ourselves in salad all day PUHLEASE?!
Oh gawl yes! Life should be made out of kombucha, soap, and salad… and coffee. And wine. But that’s it, that’s ALL we need!
This salad is to die for! Those beets are perfection. So beautiful!
Thanks so much, Katya! Let me know if you take ‘er for a spin!
I LOVE that you just said uuuuge, lol!! I think it’s hilarious when people don’t pronounce the “h”. Sigh, you always know how to me make me laugh. 😉
Yes, I agree, meaty beets are of the chisel!
That shot of steaming wedgies is making me crave one so bad right now. And with the maple balsamic dressing…ugh. Deeeelish!
So glad you get a kick out of uuuuuge too. I feel like the meaning of the word is so dramatic that you may as well go overkill with the whole thing but sucking in the h and letting all your air out in the one word. Lets eat some uuuuge beets with all zee dressing. MMMers. mmmm.
I’m getting around 5 GIANT beets a week in my CSA box, so, yeah, I totally need all the beet recipes I can find. This salad looks like perfection!
Ah jeez, I’m jealous of your CSA box! Let me know how you like the salad!
I’m not a big fan of arugula (it’s easy for me to get too much of it), but this dressing sounds absolutely awesome. I’m sure I’ll find a way to use it. And it sounds perfect for this salad.
Thanks, Susan! I’ve tried the salad with mixed greens and dino kale too, and really liked it. So glad you like the dressing – it’s seriously a winner!
This such a pretty salad. I love the combination of warm beets and goat cheese.
So glad you like it. Not everyone is up for a warm salad, but I say bring them on! Enjoy xo
I absolutely LOVE roasted beets! They always find their way into my grocery bag at the farmers market! And yes, wedgies for all of us!
Oh I love this pairing! Beets and goat cheese with walnuts are my favorite. LOVE this!
Perfect timing! Looks so good. Here on Vancouver Island our gardens are still unbelievably producing! I have a whole row of arugula and lots of beets still growing, so now I know I can simply combine the two and make your salad. Thanks!
This looks perfect. Meaty beets galore!
OMG beet salads are essential to my well being! Love that you serve the beets warm in this. Such a change! And that dressing yum! Thanks for sharing this salad is on my to make list!
My favorite type of salad is meaty non-meat salads! This recipe speaks to my heart and seriously can I just drink that dressing? Perfect. Pinning now and making it this week!
Sometimes I just don’t know what to do with beets, they are so pretty but how do I use allll the prettiness they bring? This salad looks PERFECT! p.s. I fully appreciate that you used the word ‘wedgies’ multiple times in this : )
Oh youv’ve come to the right place, sister! I absolutely love beets, but I fall into the same trap of running ideas for what to do with them. Let’s put our heads together and come up with the best beet wedgie recipes evah!!
I needed this salad recipe. Only I think I’ll use a half of my beet, which should equal your three large beets. Stephie and Alex were amazed at the size of my beets yesterday.
GAH I wish I was able to see those beets in person slash have one/ten of my own. I think you’ll love this salad! It’s so simple, but everything jives super well. The dressing?! Sluuurp, I could drink it through a straw!
I forgot to mention–my beets were white!! Who knew? Have you had them? They are milder than their red cousin (sister? mate? what the heck would it be?) and not nearly as pretty. Hey. They were 25 cents, and still quite good. And, yes! Beet wedgies would be the thing to have! (although I was being lazy and just diced them. But that big makes it harder to wedge).
Completely white?! I’ve seen the chioggia beets that are white and pink striped, but never an all-white beet. I must find an albino beet! And yeah, when they’re that big, they’d probably take like 2 hours to roast in their whole-form, which is just.too.much!