This salad. is. life. It miiiiiight be my ALL TIME favorite salad ever. I no joke ate it every day for lunch for weeks, and the only reason I stopped is because we ran out of pickled beets and I kept forgetting to buy more.

I keep a giant box of spring green mix, a giant box of arugula, a bag of red onions and lemons in the pantry, and a Costco pack of goat cheese in the fridge at all times so I can make this whenever I want. Are you catching my drift on how obsessed I am?

It is perfection.

It’s got tangy from the beets, crisp and sharp from the onion, rich and creamy from the goat cheese, and fresh and peppery from the greens. THE most heavenly combination.

I used to make this salad a lot when I lived back in Kansas and would use pickled beets from the store, but when I moved to NC I couldn’t find the pickled beets that I used to buy.

So I had to figure out how to make my own, and let me tell you, they are DELICIOUS homemade. They are also ultra easy to throw together as long as you have some time (because they have to roast in the oven for a bit).

Another fun thing about this salad is that you don’t need a dressing. The pickled beets are kind of a bite of vinaigrette on their own, and then we squeeze lemon juice over top of the whole salad which helps bring that extra bit of flavor.

So here’s your basic process here:

Throw your beets in the oven to roast
Rub the skin off and slice them up
Boil your pickling liquid, pour it over the beets, and let them chill in the fridge
Assembly is the final step! Throw your greens in a bowl, add goat cheese, sliced red onion, your beets, and a big squeeze of lemon juice

And that’s all there is to it! So easy, so simple, but an explosion of deliciousness. You will be so addicted. MAKE IT HAPPEN!.

Pickled Beet, Goat Cheese, and Arugula Salad

Author: Annie Chesson
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients

Scale

FOR THE PICKLED BEETS

3 beets, peels left on
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt

FOR THE SALAD

Spring green mix
Arugula
Thinly sliced red onion
Goat cheese
Fresh lemon juice

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and slice off the beet greens so you are left with only the beets themselves
Place the beets in a sheet of foil and wrap the foil around the beets to make a sealed pocket
Roast for one hour
When done, rinse them with cool water so they are cool to the touch and rub the skins off with a damp paper towel
Slice the beets into half moons and set aside in a tupperware
Meanwhile, bring your pickling liquid to a boil (apple cider vinegar, sugar, and salt). When it has boiled and the sugar has dissolved, pour it over the beets, place the lid on the tupperware, and let it chill in the fridge
When ready to assemble, place a mix of spring greens and arugula on your plate and top with about 1/4 cup of pickled beets, about an ounce of goat cheese, a handful of red onions, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Season the salad with salt and pepper and you’re done!

Notes

I was vague in the ingredient amounts aside from the pickled beets because it’ll totally be up to you on how much of everything you throw on the salad.

If you use 1 oz of goat cheese and 1/4 cup of beets, this recipe is 4 Freestyle SmartPoints per serving!