Roasted Beetroot and Feta Recipes

Last week I was looking for a simple meal to make using some beetroot I had languishing in my fridge. I was also looking for some meal planning ideas. I’m horrible at planning meals in advance, which means some evening I make some pretty poor, or bizarre, meal choices.

Although I love beetroot, usually I’m not very exciting with it. Either I make borscht, beetroot salad, red velvet cake, or these chocolate beetroot brownies. This time I was looking for something new; and something using ingredients I had on hand.

What I came across was a recipe for potato pancakes stuffed with spiced beetroot. Pancakes, beetroot, and spices in the same dish? I’m in. Of course, I then proceeded to alter the recipe.

The original recipe called for mashed potatoes which were then made into crepe-style pancakes. This seemed like too much time and too many dishes for me for a weekday night, so instead I made latke-style drop pancakes with grated potato and served the filling on top.

I also adapted the filling.  I didn’t have pine nuts or rocket (arugula), so I used sunflower seeds and romaine lettuce. As well, it seemed like a waste to cook the beetroot then roast it, so I just roasted it. Finally, the recipe also screamed out for feta cheese, so I added some.

The result was delicious! So much so, that a few days later I made a modified version of the filling as a salad to take to a potluck lunch.

Here are the recipes for the beetroot filling and salad. Yes, the recipe no longer looks like the original, but that’s the joy of inspiration! I’m not going to give a recipe for the potato pancakes because I didn’t really follow one. (I rarely use recipes for pancakes.) There are also plenty of potato pancake recipes online.

Roasted Beetroot and Feta

• About 250g (1/2 lb) of beetroot, peeled and cut into 2 cm (1 inch) cubes
• 2 Tbs (30 mL) sunflower seeds or other nuts like walnuts or pine nuts
• 1 tsp (5 mL) caraway seeds
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
• juice of  1/2 medium lemon
• 1 Tbs (15 mL)  balsamic vinegar
• 2 Tbs (30 mL) olive oil
• Fresh ground salt and pepper
• 2 (30 mL) Tbs raisins
• 100 g feta cheese, cut into 1 cm (1/2 inch) cubes
• 1/4 cup (60 mL) plain Greek yogourt
• Lettuce, chopped

Toss the beetroot, sunflower seed, caraway seeds, garlic, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper together. Spread out on a baking sheet and roast at 350F for 25 minutes or until beetroot is tender. You will need to “stir” the roasting vegetables after about 15 minutes.

Add the raisins and feta cheese. Roast for 5 minutes more.

Serve immediately on top of pancakes with a dollop of Greek yogourt. You could also use this as a side dish (with or without the feta and yogourt).

Roasted Beetroot and Quinoa Salad

• About 250g (1/2 lb) of beetroot, peeled and cut into 2 cm (1 inch) cubes
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 red pepper, coarsely diced
• 1 green pepper, coarsely diced
• 2 Tbs (30 mL) sunflower seeds or other nuts like walnuts or pine nuts
• 1 tsp (5 mL) caraway seeds
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
• juice of  1/2 medium lemon
• 1 Tbs (15 mL)  balsamic vinegar
• 2 Tbs (30 mL) olive oil
• Fresh ground salt and pepper
• 2 (30 mL) Tbs raisins
• 100 g feta cheese, cut into 1 cm (1/2 inch) cubes
• 1/2 cup quinoa (preferably fair trade or responsibly-sourced)

Toss the beetroot, sunflower seed, caraway seeds, garlic, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper together. Spread out on a baking sheet and roast at 350F for about 10-15 minutes. Add the onions and peppers. Roast for another 10-15 minutes or until beetroot is tender. You will need to “stir” the roasting vegetables periodically.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/2 cup quinoa in about 1 cup of water until water is absorbed. (Or cook according to package directions)

Allow the roasted vegetables and cooked quinoa to cool before tossing them together with the feta and raisins.