Farmers Market Fun - Crostini with Goat Cheese and Roasted Beets

I love coming up with an idea at the farmer’s market. Finding the components, making a plan…

I get it. I’m a huge dork. Oh well!

For the last few weeks I’ve been helping out my friend Wild Blue Bakery with her booth at The Stop’s Farmer’s Market at Wychwood Barns. I love it, because let’s be honest - I would likely spend a portion of my Saturday at the farmer’s market anyway, now I just got there with a purpose and get to spend time chatting to people and hanging out with one of my favourite people… plus I do my farmer’s market shop!

This Saturday as I was going around I made a stop at one of my favourite vendors Monforte Dairy to grab a little of their fresh goat cheese. This week I picked up the Lemon Succor, which is so beyond delicious!

As I walked past the amazing veggies on display I saw some beets and I knew what it would all be!

I got home with my haul, a baguette from Wild Blue Bakery, the Cheese from Monforte, and some beets from a local farmer.

I started by slicing up my baguette, this works with fresh baguette but would be just as good with your one or two day old one.

Once the baguette is sliced up, I lay it out on a baking sheet drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning. For this recipe I went for a chili salt to give the crostini a little kick.

The bread needs to bake for about 5-7 minutes in a 350C oven.

Once they are done let them cool for a few minutes or else the cheese will melt right off!

In the mean time I peeled the beets, and cut them into even pieces, drizzled with olive oil and put them into the oven (it should already be heated from the crostini).

The beets roast in about 10 minutes, they are done when you can easily slide a fork into them.

Now it’s just about assembly!

Depending on how fussy you want to be with this you can just spread a little goat cheese onto each piece of bread with a knife or you can put into a piping bag with a star tip and make them super fancy.

I decided to land a little in between, so I loaded up a tip-less piping bag and swirled about a teaspoon of cheese per piece.

Then each one got a wedge of beet, and I found some micro mustard greens in my fridge to add an additional little bite and some freshness.

All that’s left to do is pop open a bottle of wine and serve!