Not really so much of a recipe… more of a “hey, let’s bring these things together, because it works!” As many of you know already, or will have gleaned from ‘Gather and Graze’, vegetable sides are simply not my forte. Just have a look at my Recipe Index and you’ll see what I mean… For the most part, a drizzle of olive oil and a little seasoning over the likes of carrots, green beans, asparagus, broccoli etc is what appears on our family table through the winter time. Occasionally, if they’re lucky… I’ll go wild and sprinkle a little sumac or toss through some herbs! 😉 So as you can appreciate, this combination of beetroot, sweet potato and feta cheese is a notch up from the usual… but I’m going to recommend that you try it, all the same! It goes so well with the likes of roasted chicken, lamb or beef.
Beetroot, Sweet Potato & Feta | Gather and Graze
Ingredients
For the Roasted Beetroots:
- 3-4 Medium Beetroots (washed and tops trimmed)
- 1-2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 1-2 Teaspoons Red Wine Vinegar
- 1 Teaspoon Honey
- Salt
For the Sweet Potato:
- 1 Large Sweet Potato (chopped into chunks)
- 1-2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper
To Serve:
- 150g Marinated Feta Cheese (broken into chunks)
- A couple of sprigs of Fresh Thyme (leaves removed from the stem)
- Extra-Virgin Olive Oil (for drizzling)
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.
Place the beetroots on a large piece of foil and drizzle with the olive oil, vinegar and honey, then sprinkle with a little salt. Fold over the foil and crimp the edges to make a sealed parcel with the beetroots within, place on a baking tray and bake in the pre-heated oven for about 1 hour (until tender when pierced with a knife).
Once the beetroots are on, line a separate baking tray with baking paper (for easy clean-up) and scatter the chopped sweet potato on top. Toss the pieces with olive oil and salt and pepper and bake for about 40-45 minutes (until tender inside and slightly crispy on the outside).
When the beetroots are cooked, remove them from the oven and allow to cool slightly, before peeling and cutting into wedges.
Place the beetroot and sweet potato into a serving dish and scatter with chunks of feta cheese and fresh thyme leaves. Finish with a drizzle of EV olive oil and a little extra salt and pepper if required.
Gather & Graze 
I never tried roasted beetroot, but I will 😉
Hi Zoe, welcome to Gather and Graze! It’s well worth trying… so very different from the pickled beetroot in the tins/jars!
Looks and sounds absolutely delicious! I’m going to try this recipe out for sure.
I’m new here and just started up my new food blog.
Please check it out and follow…I’m just getting started!
Thanks
Laura
https://glutenfreeforthesoul.wordpress.com/
Cheers Laura! Thanks for stopping by and leaving such a kind comment! Welcome to the world of food blogging – I wish you all the very best.
Beautiful
Thanks, very kind of you to say so. 🙂
How did I miss this post Margot? Well, showing up late and glad to be here. 🙂 I love how you described your usual vegetable sides “a drizzle of olive oil and a little seasoning”. Sounds perfect. And this little combination is rather nice too! Like how you added a bit of honey to the beets before baking. Fabulous Autumn side!
The dish really isn’t much more advanced than the drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt and pepper, but nonetheless these 2 particular root vegetables work really well alongside one another… and I’m always rather partial to a little feta on salads/sides! Hope you’re having a great week Seana! 🙂
Margot, I needed this recipe in my life! I’ve had two sweet potatoes sitting uneaten in the veg. drawer for months and now have a rather tasteless beetroot to add to the mix so …yey! Guess what I’m cooking for supper tonight? 😉
Oh dear… happy to come to the rescue with this rather opportune dish for you Trix, though just hope it tastes as great using month’s old sweet potatoes and tasteless beetroot! 😉 Let me know how it goes! M.xx
Who said that just cakes or more complicated savoury recipes deserves to be shared? I’m totally in favour of what you said “let’s bring this together because it works”! I’m sure these vegetables with feta are super yummy!
Thanks for your kind comment Margherita! I’d love to know everybody else’s tips and tricks for simple ways of jazzing up vegetable sides – think I need to start browsing through everyone’s recipe indexes to see what I can find! 🙂
lovely. 🙂
Thanks Nell!
Vegetable sides aren’t exactly my forte, either. I like roasted beetroot and roasted sweet potato, and I can see why they would work with feta (provided it’s good feta and not the supermarket stuff that tastes only of salt). Of course the color palette is wonderful as well 🙂
Thank you so much Stefan, I love the mix of colours in this dish as well! and yes, definitely requires a good quality feta to provide that luxurious, slightly salty, creaminess to balance out the flavours! 🙂
Sounds very delish!
I love roasted beetroot…the flavour, the texture and the vibrant colour. It looks so gorgeous paired with orange sweet potato 🙂
It’s definitely a vegetable I’d love to cook more with Sam – roasted through the winter and then raw within salads in the warmer months. Hope you’re well! 🙂 Margot
Looks so pretty – imagine it tasted amazing!
Cheers Tanya! Isn’t that deep red of the beetroot just gorgeous!?
Looks simply damn delicious root veggies!!!
😀 Thanks so much Dedy!
I love non-recipes like this. And such a great combination of things that make each other look and taste gooooood. margaret
Thank you so very much Margaret, I appreciate your kind comment! Cheers, Margot
Thank you for sharing this recipe Margot. Though most ingredients are hard to get over here, local carrots and beetroots can be commonly found along street side grocery stalls. Only that the texture and flavour are slightly different. I love beetroots with freshly chopped parsley and will certainly give this combination a try. With sweet potatoes, this can be my office lunch on its own.
Danny!!! How are you my friend? I’d love to hear your news and know how life is going for you in HK… It really is so lovely to see you here today!
Happy to know that you like this little melange of root vegetables… I agree, I could sit and eat this all on it’s own at lunchtime as well! In fact, I did exactly that with the leftovers the following day. 😉
Thank you Margot! I’m good. I can cope better with my sleep now after moving to a less noisy neighborhood. Another good news is I’m starting to cook and bake again in this new kitchen. I love root vegetables since childhood especially potatoes, yam and tapioca. Always great to see your posts and so happy that you are still cooking and writing 🙂
I roasted some beetroot the other night with parsnips, and I was happy as Larry. That earthy flavour of beetroot just works so well once roasted – love it.
Sounds lovely – great to hear from you Michelle! Cheers, Margot
This sounds delicious Margot, the salty fetta must be perfect with the sweet roasted vegies. I have tried to like goat’s cheese over and over but I find the goatiness off putting!
Oh I’m so pleased to know I’m not the only one who doesn’t find goat’s cheese appealing Sandra… I was actually starting to despair! The only way I’ve ever enjoyed it was in little filo pastry tart shells, mixing marinated Meredith Dairy cheese, with some cream and egg yolks… though I doubt that really counts! 😉
Thanks for your generous comment Sandra.
Hope you’ve had a lovely weekend.
Hah! Go wild with sumac. Actually, I’ve just recently bought a pack of it for the first time and love its citrusy flavour. Would it go with beetroot? As I’ve been eating pickled beets more than usual. Normally with black pepper and/or marjoram. Have to admit, beets are never going to be my favourite. 🙂
Oh, isn’t sumac wonderful! So pleased you picked some up to try… and can’t see why it wouldn’t go with beetroot, in fact it would probably go quite well sprinkled across this dish as well, with the feta and olive oil. I’ve never been big on the pickled/tinned beetroot (except perhaps rather oddly to have a slice or two on a home-made hamburger – something of an Australian fetish, I think! 😉 ), but must say that roasting them from fresh, creates a completely different vegetable. I have some marjoram in the garden, so will have to try that next time.
Aren’t the non-recipes the best recipes of all? That’s the beauty of savory dishes and that’s why I love them. You can improvise whatever you want and come up with a great dish even the first time. I love your side dish and I can tell it complements beautifully any kind of meat. It’s a winner on my book! 😍
Thank you dear Francesca! We served this with some slow-roasted lamb, which worked beautifully. Hope you have a wonderful and hopefully relaxing weekend!
Sweet potato and feta is a fave of mine. Never tried beetroot. Next time I see some at the market I will give it a go! Thanks for the idea. 🙂
You’re welcome! Hope you do give it a try sometime! 🙂
Love roasted beets, or beets in any form. By the way, you can use goat cheese in this recipe too. And also a bit of the roasted pistachio nuts can do magic in combination with beets 🙂
I’m a fairly recent convert to cooking with beets (or beetroot as we call them in this part of the world)… thanks for your tips Anatoli, I love the idea of a little crunch from some roasted pistachios (will try that next time!), but I’m unfortunately not (yet) a fan of goat’s cheese… something I need to keep trying though, as I’m sure one day I’ll discover that I enjoy it after all! 😉
I love your combo and approach, I´m pretty much the same when it don’t have much time to cook: I just open my fridge, take a look what´s inside (yes, I should already know) and makes a colorful, tasty mix – sometimes the result is surprisingly good, sometimes not 😉
Your dish, however, looks wonderful!! Thanks for the idea.
Yes, you’re right Sabine… it really can be a matter of trial and error when you bring certain ingredients together for the same dish! I was happy with how this one turned out. Cheers, Margot
Nevertheless, it is a very satisfying ensemble of flavorful ingredients. 😛
Absolutely Fae! If the ingredients are of a high quality, then they really speak for themselves! 🙂
I love all the individual ingredients you have brought together so I’m sure this dish must taste super flavorful Margot! Happy FF!
So kind of you Naina, thanks so much! Happy FF to you too! 🙂
What a divine combination! 🙂
They really do work well together. Thanks Angela!
That looks so good! Was wondering if you would be interested in sharing this post on a recipe linky party entitled #foodpornthursdays? It’s a link up that will run weekly from thursday through sunday and is a chance for others to discover your blog and vice versa. I am cohosting the linky with two other people and we will share your post across all our social networking:) If you are interested just click here —–>http://wp.me/p5fmoJ-hq Hope to see you there
Thanks, I’ll click on the link to have a look… Cheers, Margot
Please do….lots of great recipes that are linked up 🙂