Tomato Beet Salad
The best Tomato and Beet Salad isn’t anything more than great ingredients, arranged on a pretty platter. With over 100,000 page views, this recipe has been the star of many dinner tables.
This Heirloom Tomato Salad with Beets is Perfect for Summer!
“Made this with tomatoes, basil, parsley and sage from my garden. It was delicious and so summery!”
—Lynda
When you have great vegetables from your garden or a farmer’s market, a “salad” really needs to be very little else beyond slicing, piling things onto a platter and drizzling with some good olive oil.
Many of us normally think of beets as more of a fall or winter vegetable. But since they’re my favorite vegetable, I’ve found that they can transition right into warmer weather too, especially when they are paired with tomatoes.
With over 100,000 page views, this summer beet salad recipe has made a star out of fresh produce on lots of dinner tables.
Why You’ll Love Beet Tomato Salad
- With the earthy sweetness of roasted beets, the juicy and tangy tomatoes, and the rich blue cheese, it’s an actual flavor explosion.
- It’s also loaded with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, so it’s as healthy as it is delicious.
What You’ll Need for This Tomato Beet Salad
- beets – you’ll need 3 medium beets, any variety, for this beet and tomato salad recipe. I’ll explain to you how to roast them below.
- heirloom tomatoes – I like a variety of larger slicing tomatoes and smaller cherry tomatoes, but use whatever is available to you.
- blue cheese – go for a really high-quality one, like Point Reyes Farmstead blue or something comparable to that. We’re using just a little bit, so you want something really good vs. the dried out pre-crumbled blue cheese, you know what I mean?
- walnuts – to add a bit of crunch to the otherwise soft tomatoes and beets.
- herbs – use whatever you have on hand, or what might be growing in your garden. Parsley, basil, thyme, chives and rosemary are all welcome here.
- olive oil – for roasting the beets, as well as finishing the salad.
- salt and pepper – critical for eating tomatoes, in my opinion.
How to Make Beet Salad
1. SEASON BEETS. Place the beets on a piece of foil on a rimmed baking pan and drizzle them with oil and sprinkle them with salt and pepper.
2. ROAST. Wrap the foil up around the beets to form a packet. Transfer the pan to the oven and roast until the beets are tender when pierced with a paring knife (see Home Chef Tips for more on timing).
3. PEEL. When beets are tender, remove them from the oven and let them stand in their foil packet at room temperature until the beets are cool enough to handle but NOT completely cool. Then, use paper towels to rub the skins off of the beets.
4. SLICE. Thinly slice the beets.
5. PLATTER. Arrange the tomatoes and beets on a pretty serving platter.
6. FINISH. Drizzle the vegetables with a bit more olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Divide the cheese and walnuts over the salad and sprinkle with herbs.
Home Chef Tips
- If I happen to have fresh thyme around, I will also throw a few sprigs of thyme over the beets before roasting in their foil packet, but this is optional.
- Exact cooking time for the beets really just depends on the size of your beets. Small ones might take 30 to 45 minutes, whereas very large beets could take up to 90 minutes.
- Once the beets are tender, remove them from the oven and let them cool, in their packet, for about 10 to 15 minutes. But do not allow them to cool ALL of the way, or rubbing the skins off will become very difficult (learned that one the hard way)!
Summer Beet Salad Variations
- DIFFERENT NUT – If you don’t have walnuts on hand, feel free to use pecans, almonds or pine nuts here instead. Or, omit the nuts altogether.
- CHANGE THE CHEESE – Hate blue cheese? You can use crumbled feta, goat cheese, or even small balls of mozzarella cheese.
- ADD PROTEIN – Grilled shrimp or buttermilk grilled chicken, or roasted chickpeas can turn this salad into a complete meal.
How to Serve Heirloom Tomato Salad
While I can practically eat a big serving of this beet tomato salad for a meal all on its own (maybe with a few easy yeast rolls), it also works very nicely as a side salad to a main dish.
Pizza and salad are a classic combination, and chicken pizza and cheeseburger pizza are two favorites around here to pair with this heirloom tomato salad.
If you’d like to pair it with pasta, my creamy salmon pasta and mushroom spinach pasta are popular choices.
I also love pairing this summer beet salad with salmon sandwiches or crockpot baby back ribs.
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What Dressing is Best for Salads with Beets?
While I used to dress this salad with something akin to my best Italian dressing, I don’t anymore. Over the years, I’ve moved to simply drizzling it with good olive oil and sprinkling it with salt and pepper, and I’ve found that that’s really all it needs.
When the ingredients are so great, why mess with them too much, you know?
Storing Tomato Beet Salad
This beet salad is best eaten shortly after it’s made, because the salt will cause the tomatoes to release their liquid, which makes it a pretty difficult salad to store for later.
However, if you have leftovers, you can transfer them to a covered storage container and refrigerate them up to 1 day.
Beet Tomato Salad FAQs
Boiling is slightly faster, but roasting beets caramelizes their natural sugars and really enhances their flavor, so I far prefer to roast them.
Heirloom tomatoes are prized for their unique colors, flavors and textures. They often provide a richer taste compared to “regular” tomatoes.
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Beet Tomato Salad
Ingredients
- 3 medium beets stems removed, scrubbed
- 2 ½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil divided
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt divided
- ½ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper divided
- 1 ½ pounds heirloom tomatoes large or cherry-sized (thinly slice large tomatoes and halve the cherry-sized tomatoes)
- 2 ounces really good blue cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
- 1 – 2 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs parsley, basil, thyme, chives, rosemary or a combination
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line baking pan with aluminum foil. Place beets on pan; drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Wrap foil around beets to form a packet. Transfer to oven and cook 45 to 60 minutes or until tender (see Notes).
- Remove from oven and let beets stand in packet for 10 to 15 minutes or until they are cool enough to handle but not completely cool. Then, carefully use paper towels to rub the skins off of the beets.
- Thinly slice beets.
- Arrange tomatoes and beets on serving platter.
- Drizzle with remaining 1-1/2 tablespoons oil and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Divide blue cheese and walnuts over salad. Sprinkle with herbs and serve immediately.
Notes
- Exact cooking time depends on the size of your beets. Small ones might take 30 to 45 minutes, whereas very large beets could take up to 90 minutes.
Made this with tomatoes, basil, parsley and pineapple sage from my garden. The only other thing I added was roasted yellow peppers. It was delicious and so summery!
So glad you liked it, Lynda!
Excuse my ignorance, but what do you mean by roasted beets?
Cooked beets, not raw!
Easy delicious recipe….thanks! Used farm fresh beets, hoe grown organic heirloom tomatoes, and substituted Pearl Barley with cooked Millet.
I’m so glad you enjoyed this, Sushma!
This popped up in my Pinterest feed today but not linked to you – had to do a bit of sleuthing to get here but so glad I did. This has to be the most gorgeous salad I’ve ever seen! Can’t wait to make it. Oh, and barley is basically my love grain – never thought of scattering it in a salad like this but YUM. At first glance I thought they were pine nuts.
Ugh, I hate those dead pins! But I’m so glad you found your way here, and I hope you love this salad when you get a chance to try it, Deborah!
As a market farmer, I am always looking for ways to help my customers use my produce. This fits! Plus I am making it for a family gathering this weekend
I was stuck with some farmer’s market beets and some fresh heirloom tomatoes tonight so I googled the two and got your blog. Nice to see another Detroit er here (Pleasant Ridge here) with some great taste. Thanks for the inspiration!
Hi Jeff! So glad you found me, and a recipe that worked for exactly what you picked up at the market. I’m actually in Ferndale, so I’m waving at you from just a few streets away 🙂
This is right up my alley. Seems I always have beets around and those tomatoes are starting to come out of the woodwork, finally! Thanks for the idea of mixing the two!
Thanks for stopping by, Amy!