“The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious. The beet is the murderer returned to the scene of the crime. The beet is the ancient ancestor of the autumn moon, bearded, buried, all but fossilized; the dark green sails of the grounded moon-boat stitched with veins of primordial plasma; the kite string that once connected the moon to the Earth now a muddy whisker drilling desperately for rubies. The beet was Rasputin’s favorite vegetable. You could see it in his eyes.” ― Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume
Week 23 of the Food Matters Project! Wowee! This week was a GREAT pick, chosen by Meg, from My Whole Food Romance. Head on over to her site to check out Mark Bittman’s original recipe for Beet “Sandwiches”. I decided to do a more “open-faced” type of beet sandwich. I also went ahead and made some sweet potato medallions–also very delicious!
Head on over to The Food Matters Project website to see what everyone else came up with too! There is something very fun about finding out what 25 + other foodies did with the same recipe. I’m endlessly inspired. Likely the easiest way to check out everyone’s culinary genious is Pinterest–in a few days every version of our beet “sandwiches” will be up on the FMP Pinterest Board for your viewing pleasure. Check it out! Now onto the recipe…
Beet and Sweet Potato Medallions with Pistachio-Goat Cheese Filling
- 2 large beets, peeled
- 1 large sweet potato, peeled
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more as needed
- Salt
- 4 ounces fresh goat cheese
- 1 cup shelled pistachios
- Pepper
- Heat the oven to 400 degrees fahrenheight. Slice the beets and sweet potatoes about 1/8 inch thick, using a mandoline, food processor, or sharp knife. Grease a couple of baking sheets with some of the oil. Spread the beet and sweet potato slices out in a single layer and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake, turning as needed, until they are crisp and lightly browned, 10-15 minutes in total. Remove from the oven and cool on wire racks.
- Combine the goat cheese and pistachios in a food processor. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and, with the machine running, drizzle in 2 tablespoons of olive oil. If the mixture doesn’t come together, add more oil until the filling is smooth and fluffy. Taste and adjust with seasoning, then cover and refrigerate until you are ready to assemble the medallions.
- Transfer the goat cheese mixture to a pastry bag or a zip-lock bag with the corner cut off (or you can just use a teaspoon for this). Squeeze or spoon dabs of the filling onto the sweet potato and beet medallions. Repeat until either the medallions or the filling runs out, top with shredded basil or arugula, then serve straight away.
These look phenomenal! I would love the sweet potato chips, for sure.
Thanks, Kate! I have ordered plenty of sweet potato chip/goat cheese dip combos at restaurants for appetizers so it only seemed natural 🙂 It was a great combo but I was shocked how awesome the pistachios made the goat cheese taste!
These are beautiful! I almost used sweet potato instead of beets, too. It looks like they made a fabulous combination.
Thank you so much! This is such an easy recipe–if you are like me and were blown away by the pistachio/goat cheese combo, you’ll be making this again…and next time can do sweet potato! Heading over to check yours out now 🙂
What a beautiful passage on the beet! And your medallions look awesome.
Thank you so much, Sarah! I love that Tom Robbins quote–I have had that knocking around in my brain waiting for a beet recipe to post it 🙂
YUM! These look delicious!
Thanks, Sara!!!
You are a brave woman turning on your oven during the heat wave!
Haha! If I was home I never would have turned on my oven! I ended up going to a friend’s house that has AC so it was so awesome to be able to bake without baking myself!
Yumm. Gluten free goodness!
Thanks, Terri!