Roasting brings out the natural sweetness of beets, while goat cheese adds creaminess, arugula brings a peppery edge, and the pistachio-herb pesto ties everything together with freshness and texture. This is the kind of dish I love for MW&B: simple ingredients, big flavor, and nothing pretending to be something it isn’t.
Serves: 4
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 45–55 minutes
Total time: About 1 hour
Ingredients
For the beets
- 1½ lb fresh beets, scrubbed and trimmed
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Small pinch of sea salt
For the pistachio-herb pesto
- ½ cup flat-leaf parsley
- 1 cup arugula
- ¼ cup shelled unsalted pistachios
- 1 small garlic clove
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1–2 tablespoons cold water, as needed
- Freshly ground black pepper
To finish
- 3 oz soft goat cheese, crumbled or spooned into small pieces
- 1 cup arugula leaves
- 1 tablespoon chopped pistachios
- Extra lemon juice, if needed
Method
- Heat the oven to 400°F / 200°C. Place the whole beets in a baking dish, drizzle lightly with olive oil, cover with foil and roast for 45–55 minutes, or until a knife slides easily into the center.
- Allow the beets to cool just enough to handle. Rub away the skins with a paper towel, then cut each beet into generous wedges.
- Make the pesto by combining parsley, arugula, pistachios, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil in a small food processor. Pulse until textured rather than completely smooth. Add a little cold water if needed to loosen it. Season with black pepper and only as much salt as you think it needs.
- Arrange the warm beet wedges on a serving plate. Spoon the pesto over and around the beets.
- Add small pieces of goat cheese, scatter over the fresh arugula and chopped pistachios, and finish with a squeeze of lemon.
MW&B Why This Fits
Real Food First: The dish is built almost entirely from vegetables, herbs, nuts, olive oil and a modest amount of cheese.
Plants Lead the Plate: Beets, arugula, parsley, lemon and pistachios provide color, texture and fiber, exactly the direction we want for MW&B recipes.
Healthy Fats: Olive oil and pistachios provide most of the fat in the recipe. USDA-derived food-composition data list olive oil as essentially 100% fat and pistachios as containing about 45 g fat and 10.6 g fiber per 100 g.
Useful Fiber: Raw beets provide about 2.8 g fiber per 100 g, and arugula and pistachios contribute additional fiber.
Flavor Is Compliance: Roasting, lemon, peppery greens, creamy goat cheese and nutty pesto make this something you would actually want to eat again.
Approximate Nutrition per Serving
Based on the ingredient amounts above and USDA-linked food-composition values:
- Calories: ~270
- Protein: ~9 g
- Carbohydrates: ~20 g
- Fiber: ~6 g
- Total fat: ~18 g
- Saturated fat: ~5 g
- Total sugar: ~12–13 g, naturally occurring
- Added sugar: 0 g
- Sodium: ~240 mg before any additional salt
Beets provide about 43 kcal, 9.6 g carbohydrate, 2.8 g fiber and 1.6 g protein per 100 g; soft goat cheese provides about 264 kcal and 18.5 g protein per 100 g.
Chef Mark’s Tip
Roast the beets a day ahead and refrigerate them whole. When you are ready to serve, cut them into wedges and let them come closer to room temperature. Cold beets straight from the refrigerator mute the flavor; slightly warmer beets taste noticeably better.
MW&B Serving Suggestion
On its own, this works beautifully as a side or plant-forward lunch. To turn it into a more complete MW&B meal, serve it with grilled salmon, chicken, lentils or white beans so the plate has a stronger protein component. That keeps the dish aligned with the MW&B emphasis on protein and muscle support without turning the beet salad into something it was never trying to be.
