On this lovely Easter day, I don’t paint eggs, but I wanted to make sure I had as much colour as possible in our food!

 

This is a great dish and super festive to bring to a dinner. You could even amp it up with multi-coloured carrots to make it even more colourful. The goat cheese and dressing brightens these roasted veggies.

Pre-baking, the colour differences are even more defined. If you want to make sure that the colours are just as defined upon pulling out of the oven, I recommend baking the red beets separately from the carrots and golden beets.

The goat cheese brand is also very important in your choice! Some goat cheese are more ‘goaty’, so if you want something fresh, make sure to look into the creameries you’re buying your cheese from. I particularly enjoy Mackenzie Creamery. They have farms they receive their goat milk from within a couple hours from their creamery. The result is goat cheese that is much milder and perfect on just about anything! I encourage you to try the goat cheese available in your area to find the one perfect for your tastes. If you don’t like goat cheese, feta would be a wonderful substitution.

Recently I’ve been all about the simple vinaigrettes. Not the ‘oh, you add all of these herbs, garlic, shallots, egg yolk, mayonnaise, etc.’ vinaigrettes, but the super simple three or four ingredient vinaigrettes. This one is three!

Roasted Carrots and Beets with Goat Cheese and a Balsamic Vinaigrette

Roasted Vegetables:

7-8 carrots, peeled and sliced on the bias

3-4 medium or 2 large red beets, peeled and diced

3-4 medium golden beets

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

 

Salt and Pepper to taste

Balsamic Vinaigrette:

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard

3-4 tablespoons olive oil

Garnish (optional):

1 tablespoon parsley, chopped finely

2-3 ounces goat cheese

 

Heat oven to 375′ degrees Fahrenheit. Peel and cut vegetables. Coat in olive oil and salt and pepper. Toss to combine. Roast for 20-25 minutes, and then flip. Roast another 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool slightly.

Combine balsamic vinegar and mustard together. With a balloon style whisk, add olive oil, mixing as you pour in order to emulsify the mustard and olive oil. If you want a thinner consistency add more olive oil. If you want a thicker consistency, add less. Feel free to change the amount of mustard to taste. I prefer not to season the vinaigrette since the vegetables were already roasted with salt and pepper.

Toss the vegetables with the vinaigrette. Top with parsley and small dollops of goat cheese.

Enjoy!