Easy Roasted Beet Salad with Feta or Goat Cheese
The roasted beet salad that is so delicious it won over non-beet lovers! Roasting beets brings out their natural sweetness, and pairing them with goat or feta cheese, walnuts, and a zesty orange vinaigrette results in a vibrant, flavorful salad. Recreate this restaurant favorite at home, making it quicker by starting with frozen beets (yes, really!). Bonus tips included for quick-thawing frozen beets and making a versatile basic vinaigrette.
✩ What readers are saying…
“Every recipe I have tried from you has been wonderful.” -Yvonne
Some links in this article are affiliate links and if you click on them I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.
Brian and I have enjoyed a local Italian restaurant in our town for years and one time I noticed they had a salad with beets that was new. Since I’m the only one who likes beets in our house I ordered it to get my beet fix.
Well, who knew beets, goat cheese, and orange vinaigrette could be so good together?
The only problem was this salad was too good to have only once or twice a year – I had to figure out how to replicate it at home. Thankfully the salad was composed of simple ingredients that was easy to create at home – and we all know how simple it is to make and vary vinaigrette dressings, right?
It’s now become a staple at our house because it comes together quickly with thawed, roasted beets from the freezer (you’d never know the beets had been frozen). Plus, I can serve it to guests because it’s surprisingly won over even non-beet lovers!
This is just one of many more quick healthy recipes to make meal planning easy, including kale cranberry salad with feta and pecans, orange almond salad with orange-balsamic vinaigrette, and quick and easy chopped salad.
Recipe Ingredients
Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
- Lettuce: A hearty green is perfect here, like the romaine pictured. A spring mix with arugula or a base of baby spinach is also good.
- Beets: Use the beets you roast easily and freeze in easy-to-use cubes! Simply thaw overnight or in a bowl of warm water for 30 minutes or so before using. You can also use store-bought cooked beets, or roast the beets before making the salad.
- Cheese: Flavorful, soft cheeses like goat and feta are perfect in this recipe. Blue cheese is also a nice choice.
- Nuts: Choose walnuts or pecans – or leave them out. Sunflower seeds are also a good option if you are avoiding nuts.
- Vinaigrette: While the orange adds a nice flavor to the beets any vinaigrette would work here, actually, so use what you have!
Let’s Make a Roasted Beet Salad
Here are a few helpful visual instructions – the full instructions with exact ingredients can be found in the printable recipe card below.
Layer salad ingredients. Use a large platter or four individual salad plates. Start with a bed of lettuce. Add some thinly sliced onion. Nestle cubed, roasted beets all around. Sprinkle with crumbled cheese and nuts.
Add dressing. Finish the salad with a homemade orange vinaigrette made by adding orange juice and orange rind (if you have it) to a basic vinaigrette (and since that recipe already shows 4 ways to change up a vinaigrette, you’ll now have 5!).
How to Roast and Freeze Beets
This tutorial will show you how to prepare and roast beets in case you don’t know (like I didn’t) AND it will show you how you can preserve those beets by simply freezing them. Yes, and they taste just as good after months in your freezer as they do the day you roast them!
Storage & Meal Prep Tips
- This salad is best eaten soon after dressing it, like most salads.
- To store for later or for meal prep lunches, simply keep the dressing separate from the salad. Stored like this, the salad will keep for 3-4 days in the refrigerator. Dress it right before serving.
- Jar Salad Idea: Add a bit of dressing to the bottom of a pint mason jar, then layer the beets, onions, cheese and lettuce, saving the nuts for the top so they don’t get soft. Store in the fridge for 2-3 days.
Why use roasted beets?
Roasting beets for salads results in more flavorful beets than simply boiling them, as it brings out the natural sugars more, intensifying their sweetness.
The result is a vibrant, flavorful tossed salad that drizzled with the orange vinaigrette is so delicious it gained a fan from even non-beet lovers!
Give it a try and you may find yourself on the beet-lovers side of the fence, too. Me? I happily ate the salad in these pictures for lunches.
I hope you love this roasted beet salad like I do – if you make it, be sure to leave a recipe rating to let me know!
Want to save this?
Enter your email below and you’ll get it straight to your inbox. Plus you’ll get easy new recipes, gardening tips & more every week!
Easy Roasted Beet Salad with Feta or Goat Cheese
Ingredients
Salad:
- 4 to 6 cups chopped lettuce
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced onions, preferably sweet
- 2 to 3 medium beets- peeled, roasted and cut into chunks (or use your freezer beets)
- 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese or goat cheese
- 1/3 cup chopped walnuts, pecans, or sunflower seeds
Orange Vinaigrette Dressing:*
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 2 tablespoons apple cider or rice vinegar (balsamic is a nice change, too)
- 2 teaspoon orange zest, optional
- 2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon black pepper or to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 2/3 to 3/4 cup olive oil
Instructions
- TIP: If using roasted beets from the freezer, you can thaw them quickly by submerging the baggie under warm water (or thaw overnight in the refrigerator).
- Layer salad ingredients on individual plates or large platter in the order listed: lettuce, onions, beets, cheese, nuts.
- Combine dressing ingredients in a mason jar or large measuring cup and shake or whisk until the ingredients are fully combined.
- Drizzle vinaigrette over salad ingredients and serve immediately.
Notes
- This salad is best eaten soon after dressing it, like most salads.
- To store for later or for meal prep lunches, simply keep the dressing separate from the salad. Stored like this, the salad will keep for 3-4 days in the refrigerator. Dress it right before serving.
Nutrition
More Easy Flavorful Salad Recipes
- Classic Caesar Salad Dressing Recipe (+ Super Easy, Delicious Homemade Croutons)
- Spicy Asian Slaw: A Quick & Easy Salad
- Chipotle Spice Rubbed Grilled Chicken Salad with Guacamole, Corn & Black Beans
This recipe has been updated – it was originally published in 2010, and updated in 2017 and 2025.
Disclosure: affiliate links in this article will earn commission based on sales, but it doesn’t change your price. Click here to read our full disclaimer and advertising disclosure.
Thanks for the goat cheese substitute recommendation…. feta!. (I’m one of those people who taste the barnyard whenever I try goat cheese….sure wish I could find a variety that didn’t have that effect for me!)
Oh, good – it does work perfectly here, too!
Beets are one of my favorite vegetables, but have never tried them roasted. Can’t wait for this years crop so I can give it a try.
Thanks
Pretty sure you will love how easy and flavorful they are, John!
I like to roast my beets first thing in the morning. Wrap em in tin foil and nestle in the ashes/coal at the edge of the wood stove before it really gets going.
I am not that fond of beets, but my neighbor made this for us on July 4th, she found a recipe on allrecipes.com, substituted feta cheese and I think it was absolutely delicious.
Jami, Looks and sounds delicious! And I was thinking about my post from yesterday… it is hard to “read” people on the computer, but it was meant to come across lighthearted and fun (hope I didn’t upset anyone). Anyhoo, I did mean what I said about converting them… I can see how you did it with this salad!
Oh I didn’t take it any other way, Heather! And I completely agree and I think the people who are hesitant about some veggies would agree, too (my Dad is one of them!).
PS- I SO remember those piles of canned spinach we would get on our hot lunch plates at school- uck. I didn’t know anyone who ate it…
not my post… my comment:)