Beets and goat cheese are a salad combination that can only be enhanced by savory-sweet crunchy walnut granola!
Yes, salad granola. A refreshing change from croutons! Although it’s hard to stab on its own with a fork, I love granola for the crunchy texture it brings to salads–and the more even dispersion than you get with croutons.
Thanks to California Walnuts and Food52 for providing inspiration for this salad! This salad is my contribution to a virtual salad party in conjunction with California Walnuts. As I hopefully conveyed in this post, this salad is so great that you can even cobble it together on vacation with a lot of ingredients missing and it will still taste fabulous. I can only imagine how amazing it would taste as written!
Though one of my favorite salads, I often feel that beet and goat cheese salads have been beaten to death. A savory granola seemed like a brilliant move to perk it up–and honestly, savory granola on salad is my favorite food discovery of the year so far.
It might seem time-consuming to make a batch of granola on top of roasting beets, massaging kale, making dressing, etc. etc. but it is SO WORTH IT. Each salty, golden cluster of granola positively burst with flavor–it’s SO umami. Plus, as a texture medium, granola disperses crunch far more evenly than croutons. I loved the earthy notes of the caraway seeds in the granola so make sure you don’t leave them out!
Each of the components (beets, granola, dressing) can keep for many days in advance, so I would recommend doing all the roasting/baking on one day. If you’re not serving a large crowd all at once, I would toss each serving of salad separately to keep the granola from getting soggy. (The recipe below makes an ENORMOUS salad with a pretty large batch of granola that will last for several salads.)
Baby beet salad with chevre and walnut granola
Ingredients
For the granola
- 1 cup rolled old-fashioned oats
- 3/4 cup walnut halves roughly chopped
- 2 teaspoons caraway seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1/4 cup soft white cheddar cheese with caramelized onion or any soft cheese
- 2 tablespoons mashed pear
For the beets
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 1/2 pound beets peeled and cut into sixths
- salt + pepper
For the vinaigrette
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 medium shallot minced (about 3 tablespoons)
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- salt + pepper
To assemble
- 2 heads lacinto kale rinsed and chopped or torn into bite-sized pieces
- 4 ounces fresh goat cheese chevre, crumbled
Instructions
Make the granola
- Heat the oven to 325°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Combine oats, walnuts, caraway seeds, and salt in a large bowl and stir to combine; set aside.
- Combine the oil and soy sauce in a small bowl. Mash the cheese into the oil mixture using a fork or your fingers until a rough, oily paste forms–you are trying to emulsify the cheese and liquid together here. Stir in the mashed pear. Pour the wet mixture over the oat mixture and stir until everything is well coated. Spread the mixture in a thin, even layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until golden brown throughout, stirring every 10 minutes, about 25 to 30 minutes total (the granola will continue to crisp as it cools). Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the granola cool completely. (Granola can be made up to 5 days in advance; store in an airtight container at room temperature.)
Roast the beets
- Heat the oven to 400°F and place a rack in the middle of the oven.
- Spread the beets on a rimmed baking sheet and toss with 1 tablespoon of the oil, salt and pepper. Roast the beets for 20 minutes then remove from oven and flip onto other side. Roast for another 15 to 20 minutes, or until they’re knife tender and golden brown. (Beets can be roasted up to 5 days in advance; store refrigerated in an airtight container.)
Make the vinaigrette
- Place all ingredients in a jar, season with salt and pepper, close, and shake until all ingredients are incorporated and come together as a vinaigrette, about 30 seconds. Just before serving, taste, adjust seasoning as desired. (Vinaigrette can be made up to 5 days in advance; store refrigerated in an airtight container.)
To assemble
- To serve, massage the kale by scrunching it in your fists until it softens (it should turn a darker shade of green and become aromatic). Divide the kale among serving plates, top with roasted beets, chevre, granola, and drizzle each salad with a few spoonfuls of vinaigrette.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
We go to Portland fairly regularly since our step-daughter, husband and 2 kids live up there. GREAT city. But your salad is to. die. for. OMG. I can’t wait to make a savory granola on a beet salad now. This is pure genius. And I’m so impressed on the quality of your photos while traveling!!!!!
erika
Thanks Susan!! Apparently there’s a savory granola up on Food52 as well, so maybe Aida didn’t invent this savory granola thing like I thought she did. Anyhoo, granola + beets is a fab combination 🙂
The Wimpy Vegetarian
F52 is a great resource for recipes and ideas! And I love the granola with the beets!!
Millie at Add A Little
Love the savoury granola with massaged kale mmm! sounds amazing! (also, love the lik story!)
Following on Pinterest and twitter too!
erika
Thanks Millie 🙂
Millie at Add A Little
Already following on instagram! 🙂
MaryBeth (@misaacmom)
I never thought of using granola in salad before. Looks delicious!
erika
Thanks MaryBeth! 🙂
JULIE DURANT
This is the first time I have seen your blog, and I love it. I’m a Portlander, and I enjoyed seeing Portland through your eyes. The salad sounds fantastic! Thank you.
erika
Oh, thank you so much Julie!! I am so in love with Portland–what a fabulous city! You’re lucky to live there–all the farmer’s markets was definitely one of my favorite parts. Thanks for visiting :))
cynthia
I love EVERYTHING about this post, Erika! So hilarious (I felt like I was right there in the Whole Foods trenches with you baha) and the result is so absolutely spectacular. Love all the MacGyver-ing that went into producing a salad that sounds beyond delicious (omg, SAVORY. GRANOLA.) I need to try this sometime soon. Hope you had a fantastic vacation, lady!!!
erika
Cynthia, you’re so awesome. Your vocab is the best (MacGyver-ing)!! Thanks SO much lady!! <33
laurasmess
Why have I never thought of savory granola??!!! That is GENIUS Erika! Yay, I’m going to… uh… rush to the shops and (in a suitably undistracted fashion) pick up the ingredients for this tonight!! Massage time awaits (and yes, Aaron thinks it’s a hilarious term too) xx
erika
LOL! Thanks Laura! My sister literally could not stop cracking jokes as she massaged the kale. And my mom kept wandering over and being like “really? This is a thing?” Oh the things we do 🙂
Barb
walnuts add such a nice touch to any food
erika
I agree! Thanks for stopping by, Barb! 🙂
Nora (A Clean Bake)
This salad is seriously stunning. I hope it was worth all the work (it seems like it was). Cooking on vacation is the worst, isn’t it? But I am really impressed by how well you ate on the road (you know I food-stalk you on IG). Ok but seriously, this salad has so many of my favorite ingredients and the savory granola is an amazing idea!!
erika
HAHA! Nora, would I eat any other way (other than well, on vacation)? I am nutz about food. To the point where I think maybe I should get some other hobbies that don’t involve sitting on my behind. But anyway, thanks for the lovely thoughts as usual. I hope you get an opportunity to try out savory granola sometime soon because it is GREAT!!
Shikha @ Shikha la mode
I need to see some Portland blogposts and photos so I know what to do when I go on Thursday! I saw this savory granola recipe on Food52 and was blown away. Adding it to my to-do list, especially cus I need to make more salads and eat less sugar hah!
erika
Ooh I hadn’t seen that granola recipe! I’ll have to try that one next :))
Rosie @The Porridge Pot
Savory granola sounds out of this world!
erika
Thanks Rosie! It really is such a brilliant idea!
Natasha @ The Cake Merchant
Whoa, this savory granola just blew my mind, but I really want to try it! I firmly believe that a good salad is worth the effort, but you are so dedicated to have put this together on vacation. Looks like you had a great, food filled trip, though.
Even though I was only in Portland for 5 seconds, I totally see why people want to move there. I stopped at a Whole Foods for dinner and had vegan banh mi and a mini raw vegan pie! Where else could that happen? Thanks for the ice cream recommendation, by the way!
erika
Hah, thanks Natasha! It was fun to throw together (and to see my baby brother finally eat some kale!) and definitely worth the effort, imo 🙂
YES right??? I was there for 5 days and was ready to move. OMGOSH their Whole Foods is so amazing!! I remember feeling the same way when I visited the Whole Foods in Austin and I got a tofu peanut butter parfait (OMG). But Portland is somehow even cooler!! And I’m SO glad you made it to Salt & Straw!!!
janet @ the taste space
Woah, girl, you go all out on vacation!! I have a quasi-kitchen right now but no camera.. even if I did have the time to blog. 😉
Love the pouring granola picture!
erika
Haha yeah it was a pretty relaxed vacation with lots of cooking anyway, and I juuust happened to bring my camera on the off chance this would happen 😉 Hope you are having TONS of fun on your travels!!!!!!!!!!!!