Beet Greens and Goat Cheese Crostini- Eat your greens
Our biggest apologies to all you friends who are still frozen under snow or drenched with rain. This beet greens and goat cheese crostini recipe isn’t to gloat about our wonderful sunshine and blue skies. It’s about reminding you to enjoy eating your beet greens.
Beet Greens Crostini Recipe
When spring arrives the joys of consuming spring greens and tender vegetables are sure signs to celebrate the season. Our garden is dotted with tender, teeny-weeny beet roots right now and during this stage of growth, we don’t wait for the beets to get bigger. There’s plenty more beets roots to be left alone to grow, but for now, all the tender stuff is harvested for the beet greens!
Healthy Beet Greens
Beet greens sauteed in simple olive oil, or tossed in a crisp green salad are just a few great recipe ideas for keeping you from tossing away these valuable tops. Unfortunately, some of the beet greens in grocery stores can be too tough and fibrous, so you’ll have to blanch them in hot water first. Or if you’re going to use the beet greens in a salad, you might have to remove the center, tougher ribs of the leaves and just eat the outer leaves.
But when spring comes, normally beet greens sold at farmers markets are tender and completely edible! Better yet, if you have the garden room or a big pot and the patience to wait a few weeks, you can harvest your own tender beet greens! Growing them yourself is surely the way to enjoy eating from garden to table this spring.
Our garden is plentiful with baby beet roots and tender greens because we’ve been fortunate to get an abundance of rain this year, followed by gorgeous days of warm sunshine. The beets are stretching their limbs and leaves out of the soil faster than we an keep up with them.
Goat cheese and beet greens salad
Simple goat cheese and beet green salad is normally what we always prepare with our first harvest of the year, but today, we decided to change it up a bit and make a wonderful little appetizer. Here’s our beet greens crostini as a result of our cravings.
Toasted bread, with a generous swipe of goat cheese, topped with some simple balsamic roasted beet roots and fresh beet greens is what we’re talking about today! It’s easy, superbly fresh and simply spring. Need we say more?
Eat your beet greens,
Diane and Todd
layer your crostini to your liking, but try a very thin slice of fresh lemon, awesome!
Balsamic Beet Greens & Goat Cheese Crostini
Ingredients
- 2-3 Beets w/ Greens still on
- 1 Baguette , sliced thin (about 20 pieces), toasted in pan or oven
- 6 ounces Goat Cheese
- Lemon Zest from 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon fresh Lemon Juice
- very thin slices of fresh Lemons (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt
- 1 teaspoon Balsamic Vinegar , or more if needed
- fresh cracked Black Pepper
Instructions
- If roasting beets: Pre-heat oven to 375° F. Wash beets, trimming greens @1" above top of beet. Put beets in a baking dish large enough to lay beets in a single layer. Add 1/4" of water to dish, cover with aluminum foil and put in oven. (If you want a bit more tang, coat beets with some balsamic vinegar while roasting.) Roast until cooked through, 30 min - 1 hr, depending on size of beets. Test doneness by feeling the resistance of a toothpick when poked into beet. Remove from oven to cool.
- After beets have cooled, rub off outer skin, then slice or dice to your preferred serving size. If you want to serve warm, quickly saute beets with a little olive oil or butter until heated. Season with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. (Other serving options: saute some crushed garlic until lightly cooked then saute beets together; finish sauteed beets with a little balsamic vinegar; add some fresh chopped herbs when sauteeing beets-mint, basil, tarragon, etc; add a bit of fresh lemon or tangerine zest after sauteing beets.)
- For cooking the greens: Wash and cut leaves and stems. Heat water to boil in a medium pot. Add stems and leaves to boiling water and quickly blanche them. Taste a piece of stem and leaves until they are blanched to your liking. Quickly drain greens and rinse with cold water. Add greens to bowl, squeeze out excess water, then add balsamic vinegar and salt to taste.
- In bowl, combine goat cheese, fresh lemon zest and juice and fresh cracked black pepper. Combine well.
- Spread goat cheese on crostini (toasted baguette slices) with goat cheese, thin layer of lemon sliced, thin slices of roasted beets and beet green greens (cooked or raw).
Thanks for a fantastic recipe! I never would have used whole lemon slices, but they’re fantastic. I showcased this recipe on my blog where I try to cook with uncommon ingredients (cookingdangerously.com). Check it out! Your photography is fantastic.
A great idea for a green that does get overlooked. Its perfect and Im making it tommorow
I really love goat cheese it is really delicous. Most of the time I eat it as a dessert or use it to make a salsa.
Oh this is too perfect. I have a batch of beet greens from the CSA that I haven’t known what to do with, and just about enough homemade goat cheese left to make these. Thanks for the post!
I fell in love with beet greens last summer; having always loved beets, I felt horrible that I’d always just thrown them away before. One of my favorite this to do is a quick blanch (I rarely get those tender baby greens) and follow up with a quick saute in olive oil, salt and pepper as a side dish. SO good.
I signed up for a CSA share this year, and this just makes me crave those veggies all the more, since it doesn’t start up until May!
Diane and Todd, thanks for posting this! I’ve always felt so guilty throwing away beet tops, but they usually look pretty tough. Now I know I can blanch them and remove the center before using. Once the farmers’ markets start up again, I’ll be on the lookout for the tender beet greens…so pumped to try this recipe. Love the slice of lemon on there too! Gorgeous photography as always, the brightness and white background perfectly highlight the vibrant colors of the food.
Gorgeous photos! I love beet greens and they’re totally underrated. Can’t wait to try the crostini!
Hi Guys –
I hope you don’t get this twice, my computer froze and I am resending!! I am working on my spring Cooking Fresh column, and I am using recipes from my favorite blogs. I would love to post this recipe with a photo if you are willing – the theme is spring, and I have three other bloggers, we will have 6 recipes in all. We will give credits, blog name, web address etc.. Congratulations on the Saveur nomination – you got my vote!!!
Best –
Kate
This looks absolutely delicious. Usually in France we can buy cooked beets, but it’s more difficult to find them raw. and I’ve never seen the greens……. I might have to grow them in a garden then!
Melanie- really? it’s that difficult to find the raw? Well then, it’s a great time to start your beet garden!
Just need to check in with you…you never disappoint. best from Jefferson’s Table
Looks fantastic! Thanks for the idea!
I never knew you could eat the greens raw! Though I would eat just about anything with the goat cheese factor. Stunning photos, just scrummy!
Rebecca- yes! you can definitely eat the raw, although the older they get , the tougher they become. That’s why you should blanche older, tougher leaves.
I LOVE crostini, and this one looks perfect. Beautiful photos, as always!
Add my name to the list of droolers… 😀
The lemon slice is just brilliant.
I like to work with crostini. This topping would be a new direction for me but it sounds good.
Beautiful pictures. I always eat the beets and toss the greens because they are bitter. I need to give them another try! Lovely mix of ingredients!