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.

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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.

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.

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, grandma pizza and cheeseburger pizza are 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.

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