Recipe: Sara La Fountain's Finnish Forest

Sara La Fountain made us this delectable goat's cheese salad with beetroot, dark sweet bread croutons, marinated red onions and blueberry-balsamic vinaigrette during her cooking demo in KL, Malaysia.  

A light, healthy and colorful salad - love the sweet-tangy blueberry-balsamic dressing, creamy goat's cheese and the special dark rye bread all the way from Finland. Best of all, it's something that you can put together in a jiffy. 

Goat's cheese salad with beetroot, dark sweet bread croutons, marinated red onions and blueberry vinaigrette
Serves 5 - 6

Ingredients
Goat's cheese salad
1 bunch of Romano salad
1 bunch of Frisee salad
4 pieces of dark rye bread
200g of goat's cheese, crumbled

Marinated red onion
1 3/4 cup of water
2/5 cup of sugar
3 1/2 cups of olive oil
1/2 cup of white wine vinegar
Salt, to taste
A pinch of all spice
2 red onions, cut into rounds

Marinated beets
5 preboiled beets
4 tsp of white wine vinegar
1 tsp honey
Salt, to taste

Blueberry vinaigrette
3/5 cup of blueberries
Juice of 1 lemon
1/3cup of oil
4 tbsp finely grated Parmesan
Salt and pepper, to taste
Sugar, to taste


1. To make the croutons, cut the dark bread into 1 x 5cm sized cubes. Put them into a 200°C oven for 5 to 7 minutes so that they are brown and crispy.

2. For the marinated red onion, combine the water and vinegar together. Add in sugar, all spice and onions and mix until combined. Slowly whisk in the olive oil until well combinaed. Add salt to taste. You can make this one day in advance.

3. For the marinated beets, preboil the beets for 35 minutes until they can be poked through with a fork. Do not peel the beets or remove the stem or root before boiling as it will lose its colour and taste. Put the beets into cold water once boiled so that it will be easier to remove the skin. Quarter the pre-boiled beets. In a bowl, whisk the white wine vinegar, honey and salt together. Add the beets into the marinade and put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

4. In a bowl, mix all the ingredients for the blueberry vinaigrette until they are combined.

To assemble:
5. On a plate, add some salad mix, marinated beet, crumbled goat's cheese and bread croutons. Top with the marinated red onions and drizzle on the blueberry vinaigrette.

*The fourth edition of the Celebrity Chef series, jointly presented by American Express and the Asian Food Channel (AFC) features American-Finnish chef Sara La Fountain. Read more about the cooking demo here.