Harvest Pear, Beetroot and Walnut Salad with BBQ Lamb

Claudia Brick — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 10:14:07 +0000

Harvest pear, beetroot and walnut salad with barbecued lamb – caramelised vegetables tossed with goats cheese, basil pesto dressing and served with ciabatta. Jump to Recipe

Last time I sat on a plane, it was a week ago and I was hurriedly finishing off this chocolate date brownie post on my way to Queenstown. That week went way too fast. This time, I am heading back to Melbourne, ready (hopefully!) for a busy few weeks of exams and assignments. (Actually, this now the day after- but the bulk of this was written on the plane!). Queenstown was amazing: I had never been there in autumn before, and the spectrum of yellows, red and oranges against the backdrop of the mountain and lakes was incredible. Google ‘Queenstown autumn’ for pictures that do the landscape much more justice than those that I took. Although my brothers did a lot of extreme mountain biking (including a terrifying descent straight down Coronet Peak, with a broken wrist achieved along the way), Mum and I stuck to biking the more leisurely trails between Queenstown and Arrowtown, going for morning runs (jogs) around Lake Hayes, sitting outside gorgeous cafes (thank you, Provisions and Vudu Larder), and doing lots and lots of cooking. That last part was mainly me. Actually, make that all me. I think we were probably some of the first people staying at Millbrook to cook in more than eat out and actually do some baking there!

This harvest beetroot, pear and walnut salad with barbecued lamb is one of my all time favourites. Deep red beetroot, juicy pears and red onions are roasted and caramelised before being tossed with greens, toasted walnuts, and a pesto dressing and topped with goats cheese. Serve with grilled lamb and toasted croutons for a supremely delicious, very autumnal, and healthy meal. And easy, too. It is (barely) adapted from a old Annabel Langbein recipe.

Just backtracking slightly: goats cheese. I am really not a cheese person, having shied away from it through my entire 18 years. However, many of the cafe smashed avocados I have been loving recently have contained a white, creamy sprinkle of cheese (which I have always assumed to be feta) – which occasionally I have devoured, but mostly ended up surreptitiously shoving larger chunks towards the side of my plate. Until this week, I had never known or given much thought to what the difference was. But guess what!! I have come to the mind-blowing realisation (well, for me, anyway) that it is the sharp, salty flavour of feta that I do not like, and in fact, the subtle tang of crumbly goat’s cheese is totally to-die-for!

In NZ we have bought the Puhoi Valley Goat’s Cheese (delicious, but unfortunately a bit expensive for the student budget), and I know that in Melbourne I have enjoyed Meredith’s goats cheese at a couple of cafes – so look out for those. Anyway, for me that was a huge deal: I no longer have to occasionally branch out and buy feta, hoping it will be the one, and then be disappointed – I will be heading straight to the goats cheese. The difference between the two is that feta has to be at least 70% sheeps milk, and needs to be aged at least 3 months according to EU regulations, though in Australia ‘feta’ is often made using cow’s milk too. Goats cheese is 100% goats milk, and, interestingly, is much higher in protein. But in terms of taste, does anyone else have this preference for goat’s cheese over regular feta? I would be interested to hear.

The point of that little tangent was that this salad goes with goats cheese perfectly. The combination of balsamic, pear, beetroot, pesto, and crusty warm olive oily bread is SO so good.

The next few weeks will be pretty quiet in terms of blogging, with exams and assignments coming out my ears, but I DO have a lot of awesome recipes photographed and stocked up from my week off that I will try to get up for you! Think passionfruit pavlovas, vietnamese grilled chicken burgers, salted caramel chocolate brownie…..

But first, here is this harvest beetroot, pear, and walnut salad: enjoy.

Harvest Pear, Beetroot and Walnut Salad with barbecued lamb

Adapted (barely) from The Best of Annabel Langbein If croutons aren't your thing, you could easily serve this with crusty bread heated in the oven, or with none at all. Same goes for the lamb. This salad also works well with venison.

Course Main

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 50 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes

Servings 4

Author Claudia Brick

Ingredients

3-4 beetroot , peeled and cut into batons about 1.5cm x 4cm (doesn't need to be precise - see above photos!)
3 red onions , cut into wedges (8-10 per onion)
3 large pears , peeled, cored, and each cut into 8 wedges
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt and freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup walnut halves
5 big handfuls of mixed salad greens (for us this is generally equivalent to one of the supermarket mesclun salad packets, but really depends on how you prefer your greens:extras ratio!)
about 120g goats cheese (chèvre style)
thick slices of ciabatta or sourdough bread
extra 1/4 cup olive oil for croutons.

Dressing

1 tbsp basil pesto (try use the best quality one you can find, or make your own)
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and ground black pepper

Lamb

4 x 200g lamb loins , or similar
olive oil and freshly ground salt and pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 220°C. Place beetroot on a baking tray or shallow roasting dish. Place the pears and onion together on a separate dish (see photos above).
In a small bowl, mix together the olive oil, brown sugar and balsamic, and divide evenly over the two trays. Mix through with your hands. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Bake for 40-50 minutes, stirring a couple of times so they roast evenly, until the pear and beetroot are tender (you should be able to stick the prongs of a fork through without much resistance).
In a separate tin, spread out the walnuts in a even layer and toast in the oven for about 5min until they start to brown (more than they already are!) and smell nutty - watch carefully, as they go from almost done to burnt very quickly.
Allow beetroot, pears and onions, and walnuts to cool.
Brush each side of the thickly sliced bread with olive oil, and place directly on rack in oven. Making sure the oven is on fan-bake, toast for 5-10 minutes or until golden and crunchy. If these are on a baking tray, you will need to turn them over half way to toast each side evenly.
Mix together the dressing ingredients. Toss the salad greens in a bowl with beetroot, pears, onions, and walnuts. Pour over the pesto dressing and toss to coat. Crumble over the goats cheese (you can also wait and crumble the goats cheese over individual plates at the end).
Meanwhile, heat barbecue plates to medium-high. Drizzle a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over the lamb and season with salt and pepper. Sear on each side until cooked to medium rare. For loin fillets, this is usually about 2 minutes per side but depends on how thick the meat is and what cut you get. Leave to stand for 3-5minutes, then slice against the grain.
Serve the salad with the lamb and croutons and watch it disappear.

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