Sarra Ina Garten’s roasted beet salad is whole beets roasted in foil until tender, cut into wedges, and tossed warm in a balsamic Dijon vinaigrette, then piled over baby arugula with crumbled goat cheese and toasted Marcona almonds. It serves 6 and takes about an hour and 15 minutes, with most of that being hands-off oven time.
This recipe comes from Ina’s Barefoot Contessa Foolproof cookbook (2012). In the headnote, she writes that “roasting beets takes some time in the oven but it’s so little trouble and they’re so much better than beets from a can.” She designed the salad around four contrasts: “sweet beets, spicy arugula, salty almonds, and creamy goat cheese.” Each ingredient plays a specific role and nothing is filler.
The technique that makes this salad exceptional is dressing the beets while they are still warm from the oven. Warm beets absorb vinaigrette in a way cold ones never do, so the balsamic flavor soaks deep into the flesh instead of sitting on the surface. Ina specifically calls this out: she tosses the warm wedges with half the vinaigrette immediately after cutting. Skip that step and serve them cold, and you get beets that taste like beets with dressing on top instead of beets that taste like balsamic all the way through.
Ina Garten Roasted Beet Salad Recipe
Course: SaladsCuisine: American, French-inspiredDifficulty: Easy6
servings15
minutes1
hour330
kcalA four-contrast composed salad from Ina’s Foolproof cookbook: sweet roasted beets dressed warm in balsamic vinaigrette, layered over peppery arugula with salty Marcona almonds and tangy goat cheese. Simple to assemble once the beets come out of the oven.
Ingredients
- For the salad:
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8 medium beets, tops removed and scrubbed
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4 ounces (115g) baby arugula
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1/3 cup (45g) roasted salted Marcona almonds, toasted
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4 ounces (115g) soft goat cheese, such as Montrachet, crumbled
- For the vinaigrette:
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1/2 cup (120ml) balsamic vinegar
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1/2 cup (120ml) good olive oil
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2 teaspoons Dijon mustard, such as Grey Poupon
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Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
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Roast the beets: Preheat the oven to 400F (200C). Wrap each beet individually in aluminum foil and place them on a sheet pan. Roast for 50 minutes to 1 hour, depending on size, until a small sharp knife slides easily into the center. Unwrap and set aside for 10 minutes until cool enough to handle.
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Peel the beets: Use a small sharp knife to peel each beet over a piece of parchment paper to prevent staining your cutting board.
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Make the vinaigrette: Whisk together the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, Dijon mustard, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper until emulsified.
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Dress the warm beets: While the beets are still warm, cut each one in half and then each half into 4 to 6 wedges. Place in a large bowl and toss immediately with half the vinaigrette, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Taste for seasoning.
- Assemble the salad: Place the arugula in a separate bowl and toss with just enough vinaigrette to moisten. Spread the dressed arugula on a serving platter. Arrange the warm beet wedges on top, scatter the almonds and crumbled goat cheese over everything, and drizzle with additional vinaigrette if desired. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
- Toast the Marcona almonds on a sheet pan at 400F (200C) for 10 minutes, turning once, until lightly browned. Sprinkle with salt while warm.
Peel the beets over parchment paper, not directly on the cutting board. Beet juice stains everything it touches and parchment paper catches the drips.
Ina says the beets should be dressed while warm because they absorb more vinaigrette at that temperature. Cold beets just sit in the dressing without taking on the flavor.
FAQs
Why does Ina dress the beets while they are still warm?
Warm beets have open pores that soak up vinaigrette the way cold beets cannot. The balsamic, mustard, and olive oil penetrate the flesh and flavor the beet all the way through instead of sliding off the surface. This is the same principle behind dressing warm potatoes for a French potato salad.
Ina uses half the vinaigrette on the warm beets and reserves the rest for the arugula and the final drizzle. That split ensures the beets get the deepest flavor while the greens stay lightly dressed and crisp instead of wilted and soggy.
How do you roast beets without staining everything?
Wrap each beet individually in aluminum foil before roasting. This traps the steam so the beets cook evenly and keeps the juices contained inside the foil instead of dripping across the sheet pan. After roasting, peel them with a small knife over parchment paper, not on a cutting board.
Beet juice stains wood, plastic, and fabric on contact. If you are cutting them into wedges, do that on the parchment paper too. Some cooks wear disposable gloves while handling beets, which Ina does not mention but is worth considering if you are prepping for a dinner party and do not want purple fingertips.
Can you use canned or precooked beets instead?
Ina mentions canned beets in her earlier Beets with Orange Vinaigrette from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (1999), where she writes “if you are in a hurry, use canned baby beets.” But for this balsamic version, roasting is the whole point. The foil-roasted beets have a concentrated, earthy sweetness that canned beets cannot match.
If you are short on time, precooked vacuum-sealed beets from the produce section are a better shortcut than canned. They have a cleaner flavor and firmer texture. Warm them in a saucepan for a few minutes before dressing so they still absorb the vinaigrette properly.
What other beet salads does Ina make?
Ina has returned to beets across three cookbooks. Her Beets with Orange Vinaigrette from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (1999) takes a completely different direction: boiled beets diced and tossed with raspberry vinegar, orange juice, orange segments, and red onion. It is lighter and more citrus-forward than this balsamic version.
Her Roasted Beet, Butternut Squash & Apple Salad from Cook Like a Pro (2018) adds roasted squash and apples for an autumn variation with a warm shallot vinaigrette. If you enjoy Ina’s fall salads, her Cape Cod Salad takes a different approach with bacon, cranberries, and Roquefort in a maple-orange dressing.
What should you serve roasted beet salad with?
This works as a first course before roast chicken, grilled lamb, or seared salmon. The earthy beets and tangy goat cheese pair best with proteins that have a clean, simple seasoning so the flavors do not compete.
Ina also tags this recipe as a lunch salad on barefootcontessa.com, and a generous portion with some crusty bread makes a satisfying midday meal on its own. For a dinner party, set out Ina’s Hummus Recipe with pita while guests arrive, then plate this salad as the sit-down first course before the main.
