Raw Beet Salad
This raw beet salad shows that beets don’t need to be cooked to shine. It’s a perfect summer salad that will leave you feeling as healthy as drinking a green smoothie.
This month’s Recipe Redux challenge was “get your fruits and veggies in shape.”
“With produce galore, now’s a great time to enjoy lots of fruits and vegetables. Show us how you’re serving the bounty of gardens and orchards in shapes like ribbons, noodles, cut-outs, or other creative cuts.”
Veggie Spiralizer
So finally, I had a motivator to finally try out that spiralizer I purchased last winter with the plans of making zucchini noodles, curly sweet potato fries, and more. Sadly, it was still resting in its box tucked away neatly in a miraculously spacious kitchen cabinet. (The full truth is that it arrived with one suction cup broken off, making me a little frustrated and leading to its packing away to deal with later…which never happened.)
Well, I don’t know who was more excited about ultimately putting it to use (despite its broken piece), me or my kids. Ok, actually, I think it was my kids. They were so excited to try it out and just wanted to keep spiralizing cucumbers.
I was amazed at how easily my spiralizer worked its way through the firm beets, despite bopping around on the table a bit due to that missing suction cup. This is definitely a gadget that will get frequent use, at least in the summertime when my refrigerator seems to be overflowing with produce.
Raw Beets: A Little Messy
I, of course, never one to mind getting a little messy, was all about spiralizing some of the beets from our local farm share. Some recipes tell you to wear gloves when working with beets, but I happily just let my hands get a little pink. Most of the pink will wash away with soap, but if you need to keep them completely stain-free wear gloves.
Roasted Beets and More
I love a good roasted beet. Sometimes I even get fancy and make them Hasselback style. I also love steamed beets and boiled beets. However, aside from the beet sauerkraut I sometimes buy along with kimchi to get some more probiotics into my system, I don’t eat raw beets very often. But I think after realizing how easy it is to make a raw beet salad that may change!
Raw Beet Salad
Here is the recipe for the beet salad I came up with. Some photos show the salad made with a cucumber (since we had so many of those spiralized cucumbers to put to use thanks to my kids!). The others show the salad made with a red and a golden beet. You choose your preference. I will say that having some spiralized cucumbers offers up a fun way for kids to enjoy this type of salad as well, you could also mix in raw spiralized carrots–let them decide!
The key to the flavor of this salad is letting the beets marinate in the dressing for at least 30-45 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
- SALAD
- 1 raw beet, spiralized
- 1 raw yellow beet or cucumber, spiralized
- 1 cup Boston Bibb (or other lettuce), chopped
- 2 ounces goat cheese
- ¼ cup pecans, toasted
- DRESSING
- 1 tablespoon EVOO
- 2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
- ½ teaspoon honey
- ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt
- Freshly ground pepper to taste
- Use a spiralizer to make beet (and cucumber if using) spirals. The salad is easiest to eat if they aren't too long, so if they come out more like spaghetti noodles, just cut them a bit. Alternatively you could grate the beet with a hand grater or food processor.
- Make dressing by combining ingredients in a small jar with a lid and shaking until blended.
- Pour dressing over spiralized veggies and toss to combine. Let sit for 30-45 minutes or even longer to help flavors develop.
- Assemble salads onto 2 plates by adding first a layer of lettuce, then the raw beets, and finally the goat cheese and pecans. Enjoy!
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