Roasted Beets with Chèvre-Yogurt Sauce

Before winter is gone again for the year (fine by me), I thought I would do one last ode to root vegetables. Specifically, beets. I love beets. LOVE LOVE. But I didn’t grow up eating beets. Did any kid grow up eating beets?

Sure, I’d eat the stray beets lurking in a Greek salad. But with all of that feta cheese and warm pita bread on the side, what wouldn’t I eat in a salad? The beets in Greek salads are generally pickled, which is OK.

But when I really started loving beets was when I was a member of a farm share CSA, and my share on any given week looked something like this:

I remember freaking out trying to figure out what to do with all of those beets (even going so far as to making Halloween Brownies with them). I decided to try roasting them and see if I liked them that way more than pickled. And I did. A lot. Love at first bite. I’ve been roasting them for years since then (and eating them in mediterranean salads). I generally roast them whole, and then use a paper towel to rub off the outside skin.

I decided to try a different method this time – peeling and chopping the beets first, and then roasting. They took on a whole different texture and flavor this way! All of the surface area of the beet pieces got browned and caramelized, making them taste even better. However, peeling the beets with a vegetable peeler was kind of a pain in the butt, so I’m not sure I’ll do it this way every time. But the end result of these beets with chèvre sauce definitely does make the few extra minutes of prep time worth it.

As for how the sauce came about – I had some extra chèvre from the caramelized fennel and apple tart, I always have Greek yogurt on hand, and I have a little chive plant growing in the kitchen window. You do the math