Goats Milk Gouda and Beetroot Salad
Why this works
Beetroot is sweet and earthy. On its own it sits a bit heavy on the plate. You want something creamy beside it, and a little acidity to lift the whole thing.
Goat milk gouda is the one to reach for here. Ours is creamy, mild and gently tangy rather than sharp, so it softens the beetroot rather than fighting it. It slices and shaves cleanly, which matters in a salad — you get thin ribbons that drape over warm wedges instead of clumps that sink.
It is a Dutch cheese, and it behaves like one. Firm, easy to cut, easy to eat. This is a weeknight salad, not a dinner-party set piece. Make it for lunch, take it to work, put it on the table next to whatever else you are having.
Ingredients
Serves 4. Prep 10 minutes. Cook 15 minutes.
500 g beetroot, peeled
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard
100 g rocket or baby spinach
150 g Goat's Milk Gouda
50 g walnuts, roughly chopped
A handful of parsley or dill, leaves picked
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Take the gouda out of the fridge before you start anything else. Cold cheese tastes of very little, and it tears when you try to shave it.
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil.
Cut the beetroot into wedges about as thick as your thumb. Keep them even so they cook at the same rate.
Simmer the wedges until a knife slides into the thickest one with no resistance. Start testing early — small beetroot go quicker than you expect.
Drain them and spread them on a tray for a few moments. You want them warm, not steaming. Hot beetroot will wilt the leaves and make the cheese sweat.
While that happens, toast the walnuts in a dry pan over medium heat until they smell nutty. Tip them straight out of the pan so they stop cooking.
Whisk the oil, vinegar, honey and mustard together in the bottom of your serving bowl. Season with salt and pepper and taste it. It should be a touch sharper than you think you want, because the beetroot is sweet.
Tumble the warm beetroot through the dressing and leave it a moment. Warm beetroot drinks up dressing in a way cold beetroot will not.
Add the rocket or spinach and fold it through gently, using the wedges to lift the leaves rather than stirring.
Shave the gouda over the top with a peeler, or cut it into thin slices with a knife and lay them on. Both work. The peeler gives you more surface and less weight per bite.
Scatter over the walnuts and the herbs, grind on more pepper, and take it to the table. It does not improve with sitting around.
Notes and substitutions
Pumpkin seeds do the job if walnuts are out, or if you are feeding someone who avoids nuts. Maple syrup stands in for honey. Baby spinach is softer than rocket if you would rather not have the pepperiness.
Roast the beetroot instead of boiling it when you have the time — you lose the quick cook, you gain a deeper flavour.
The cheese contains milk.
We bring the wheels in whole and cut and pack them here in Auckland, so what you get is cut cheese rather than something that has been sitting sliced for months. Keep the rest of the piece wrapped and out of the coldest part of the fridge; there is more on that in How to Store & Handle Artisan Cheese.