Roasted Beets with Goat Cheese (or Feta Cheese)

This is Bianca's Mom again. A friend of mine at work, Kim Engelby, gave me this recipe she found for roasted beets. Since Bianca is not a beet lover, as I am, this recipe was left for me to test. Bianca did help with the final tasting and decided that she liked it better with goat cheese rather than feta but I think that is a personal choice.  The beets can also be roasted on your grill outside which may be a good idea this time a year when heating up your oven to 400 degrees F for an hour can really heat up your house! Roasting beets in your oven is relatively easy. Just trim off the greens as soon as you bring them home (remember, you can rinse the greens in use them in a salad, cook them up or even make beet green ravioli), clean off the bulbs, then place in foil, fold them up and place in the oven until tender when poked with a fork. I have also frozen cooked beets and they stay well for at least 4-5 months. We still do not know how to can at our house but I think about it every year since I just love pickled beets. Maybe, this will be the year we take the dive and start canning!

Ingredients:

4 beets, leaves trimmed leaving one inch stem
1/4 cup minced shallot
2 tablespoonfuls minced fresh parsley
2 tablespoonfuls olive oil
1 tablespoonful balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoonful red wine vinegar
1/4 cup crumbled mild goat cheese (Drake Family Farms)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Wrap beets in aluminum foil and place on cooking sheet. Bake beets until easily pierced with a fork, anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Remove from oven and let cool. Using paper towels (so your hands don't turn a pretty shade of red), peel the beets by rubbing them with the paper towel. Cut into 1/4 inch slices.
2. Whisk together the shallots, parsley, olive oil and vinegars. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Place the warmed, sliced beets onto a serving dish, pour vinaigrette over the beets and sprinkle with goat cheese prior to serving.

Options:
1. Use honey wine vinegar from Slide Ridge Honey instead of the red wine vinegar.
2. Use 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese (Gold Creek or Farmstead Cheese) in place of the goat cheese.
adapted from allrecipes.com