It’s very easy to grab our favourite comfort foods at this time of year as the weather starts to change but we need to also keep eating something thats going to be good for us. Don’t get me wrong, it’s lovely to be having soups and stews but we still require something light.

This Autumnal warm salad will boost that vitamin c needed. It is super easy and looks great and colourful. You can also put some squashes in there including using up Pumpkin if you like, which is perfect for this time of year.

Those earthy flavours just burst out into this salad pairing perfectly with the honey, fennel and goats cheese. This mixture could even go onto a puff pastry tart or a great pizza topping.

This recipe is for my regular cooking slot on BBC Radio Leicester. Ady Dayman filled in for Ben Jackson who I usually do the show with. I have to admit though, I have felt shocking over the past couple of days. I have been really ill, even as I write this so the recording isn’t usually as thorough as it normally is. I do apologise! However I could’nt let my listeners down and plodded on through as I enjoy doing the show much. More reason why I did this dish really so I could try and boost my immune system!

Click here to hear the recording.

Roast Autumnal salad of beetroot, carrots, goats cheese, honey and fennel:

 

Ingredients:

(Serves 2)

Roasted vegetables:

• Roughly 2 tbsp of rapeseed oil.
• A good handful of fresh beetroot 3-4 good size peeled and chopped into chunks ready for roasting.
• 3 good size carrots peeled and sliced into chunks for roasting also.
• 2 red onions chopped into chunks.
•  Sprinkle of salt and cracked black pepper to season.
• 1 tbsp honey ( I used local Leicestershire honey )
• a good sprig of lemon thyme, thyme and oregano ( If you can’t get lemon thyme, use a little lemon in there )

At the end of roasting add :

• Handful of fennel fronds/tops chopped loosely
• chopped chives
•  2 handfuls of your choice of greens for the salad.  I used mizuna in mine, but you can use any peppery salad such as rocket, watercress or even Spinach.
• 100-150 grams of goats cheese crumbled
• Any oil and honey left in the roasting dish. Use to drizzle over the salad.

Method 

•  Preheat oven to 180c.
• Par boil carrots for 5 minutes, just to soften them slightly.
• Roast Beetroot for 10- 15 minutes in Rapeseed oil
• Then add in your carrots and roast for a further 5-10 minutes.
• Then pop in your Red onion and herbs. At this point add more oil if needed and coat all vegetables in honey.
• Place back into the oven and roast for a further 10 minutes or until vegetables are cooked. I like to have my beetroot still having a little bite as it tastes more earthy.
• Once out of the oven , add fennel and chives to the mixture. Sprinkle in the goats cheese.
• Place on top of your leaves or toss together. Add any oil and honey from the roasting tin and more goats cheese if you wish.