Cold Beet Salad With Arugula, Feta and Pistachios

There are beet lovers and there are beet haters………come on, admit it, you just “think” you don’t like beets.  Our cold beet salad with arugula, feta and pistachios is a cold side dish or a hearty entrée that will transform anyone into a beet lover.

Beautiful and nutritious at once.  We take several short cuts here, the primary one is using packaged, cooked beets to keep from the mess, hassle and time it takes to roast raw beets.  That makes our cold beet salad a convenience food.

Raw Beets Or Packaged Cooked Beets?

For me there is no competition here.  I use the packaged cooked beets.  They save time, mess and hassle.  Yes, they are a bit more expensive, but you can’t beat the convenience. 

I used a brand called Love Beets but there are several choices.  Look for them in the refrigerated section of our produce department.

If you want to save money go ahead and buy the fresh beets, especially if you like using the beet greens. You can cook the beet greens just like you would kale, swiss chard, bok choy or spinach.

How To Make Cold Beet Salad With Arugula, Feta & Pistachios

No cooking involved!  You can buy packaged beets anytime of year so this cold beet salad fits the bill anytime you want it.

Slice the beets into 1/8” slices.   Make sure to oil your cutting board, knife and the hand holding the beets.  See section below for more information on how to prevent beet stains.

Optional:  toast the shelled pistachios in a dry skillet over medium heat for a few minutes or on a baking tray in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.  Once cooled, roughly chop.

Chop the fresh mint.  I like to make a chiffonade by layering several leaves together, roll them into a cylinder and slice with a knife.  This makes long pretty ribbons.  Reserve a few to top the dip with as a garnish.

Make the dip by mixing the feta, buttermilk and chopped mint.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  I used about ¼ teaspoon kosher salt and a few grinds of black pepper.

How To Serve Cold Beet Salad

You can make one big platter or small servings depending on how you want to serve it.  For a dinner side dish I tend to make it on one big platter and a medium size bowl for the dip.

For appetizer servings I like to make individual plates and small ramekin for the dip.

Mix a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil and a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar.  Some people like more dressing than this, if so just double the amounts.  Season with salt and pepper (I used a pinch of kosher salt and a couple grinds of black pepper), toss with the arugula.

Fill a ramekin with some of the feta dip and place on the appetizer plate.  Add the dressed arugula to ¾ of the plate.  Top the ½ the arugula and the remaining ¼ of the empty plate with the beets.  You don’t have to follow this perfectly, it just looks pretty this way.

Top with chopped pistachios and chiffonade of fresh mint.

So pretty and so delicious.

Time Savers and Tips For Cold Beet Salad

The biggest time saver is to substitute the feta dip with just sprinkling crumbled feta, goat or blue cheese over the beets and skip the dip all together.

You can cut and prep everything but the mint and dress the arugula up to a day ahead of time.  Just don’t assemble before you are ready to serve.  And store everything in their own container.

Then when you are ready to serve the cold beet salad all you have to do is dress the arugula, chiffonade or cut the fresh mint and then assemble.  It couldn’t be any easier.

Ingredient Substitutions For Cold Beet Salad

Red Beets – you can find other variety of beets, they all have their own flavor.  Red beets are my personal favorite.  I use packaged beets.  You can buy and roast fresh ones if that’s your preference.  I’ll come over to your house for them, I’m far too lazy for fresh beets.

Feta dip – you can easily skip the dip and just crumble feta, goat or blue cheese over the finished cold beet salad.

Fresh mint – you can substitute with fresh flat leaf parsley, basil or thyme.  I don’t care for dried herbs here.

Arugula – the peppery bite of arugula goes well with the beets.  But watercress or any light green will do.

Pistachios – use any nut that you like. Good choices are walnuts, slivered almonds or pecans.

How To Remove Beet Stains…Or Just Prevent Them To Begin With!

The best way is to avoid the beet stains in the first place.  I start by buying packaged, cooked beets in the refrigerated section of the grocery.

The next trick that I learned from Virginia Willis is to oil your cutting board and the blade of your knife.  Just brush a little oil all over the board and the beet juice will bead up and rinse right off when you are finished. 

I veer a little away from Virginia in that I oil only one hand not two, the one that will be holding the beet while I slice.  I keep the hand holding the knife clean so that I can control the knife better and it won’t slip.  I couldn’t believe how well this trick worked for preventing beet stains.

In fact the inspiration for this recipe came from one of Virginia’s recipes from her cookbook Secrets of the Southern Table. I simplified the ingredients and prepping.

So what if you didn’t read my blog post first, and you are now standing there with pink hands and a red cutting board.  No fear, it just takes a little more work than if you had prevented the beet, turmeric or berry stains in the first place.

Remove Beet Stains With Lemon

I also found on ehow that using a cut lemon (even one leftover from your earlier recipe) with kosher salt will help remove beet stains.  Sprinkle the kosher salt on your hands and/or cutting board, rub with the lemon vigorously and let sit for about 5 minutes then rinse. 

Again, I haven’t tried any of these beet stain removal methods so I can’t vouch for how well they work.

Remove Beet Stains With A Potato

According to Always Order Dessert you can use a cut potato to get rid of the beet stains.  Just cut a raw potato, dip it in kosher salt and start scrubbing your hands or the cutting board under running water.  I haven’t tried this method…….just trying help all of you out there with pink hands.  

Different Varieties Of Beets

Self suggests using a different kind of beet that doesn’t have the strong red color like Chioggia beets (they are really pretty with a striped center) or golden beets, each has a slightly different flavor, so keep that in mind.  These different types of beets are getting easier to find these days.

The Chioggia and golden beets don’t stain like the red beet variety does.

But I still think that my “prevent the beet stains to begin with” method is the best.  Just use some good old fashioned oil.  Done!

You May Also Like

Caprese Salad

Grilled Peach Salad