Beet and goat cheese salad

Here is a refreshing and nutritious dinner salad with beets which are, funnily enough, a new ‘trendy’ ingredient on the US restaurant scene. Don’t get me wrong, beets are great, maybe it’s just funny to me because I’ve been eating them all my life! But if you have not tried beets before, give this salad a try and you’ll fall for their sweet, crunchy taste.

You’ll need (serves two):

• 3 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon fennel leaves,  1.5 tablespoons lemon juice, 1/2 tablespoon lemon zest = for dressing
• 5 small beets – peels and cooked, cold
• approx 10 pita chips
• approx 1/4 cup chevre goat cheese
• 4 cups baby green salad
• salt and pepper (if you have pink peppercorns, use them!)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare the dressing first (assuming your beets are already cooked – if not, leave a couple of hours for roasting or an hour or so for boiling and peeling): mix together the olive oil and the lemon juice, add a pinch of salt and taste. Season as needed and add finely chopped fennel leaves and lemon zest. Set aside.

2.  Wash and divide the baby greens between two bowls. Slice the beets – not too thin because they will be pretty soft – and mix in.

3. On a lined baking sheet, spread out some pita chips (approx 10 small-sized ones) and put half a tsp of goat cheese on each piece. Toast for 15-20 minutes until the cheese is just bubbling and chips are golden brown.

4. Dress the salad, mix well, and top with goat cheese ‘toasts.’ Top with fresh-ground pink pepper.