Warm Beet Salad
Beets. You either love them or you don’t. I didn’t think I liked beets, and would make faces at others who ate them, until I made pickled beets with my mother-in-law. I was a convert! I love them prepared so easily in this simple salad! In fact, I have converted a few former beet haters with this salad!
Beets have a mild flavour, are low in calories, contain valuable nutrients and are a good source of plant-based fibre. Their health benefits are: supporting heart health and reducing blood pressure. They contain folate, iron, potassium, manganese and vitamin C. They can be eaten raw, and their leaves are also edible, both are usually boiled, baked or steamed to soften and enhance their flavour. They do contain natural plant-based nitrites so those that are prone to kidney stones need to eat beets in moderation.
After eating beets, don’t be alarmed when ‘eliminating’ as it will be quite red!
As always, when you make this recipe, I would love to see your creation so please post a photo of your Warm Beet Salad goodness and tag my IG account #RenataCollective or leave a comment with your thoughts!
Prep Time: 10 minutes / Cook Time: 35-45 minutes / Servings: 6
Ingredients
6-8 Small-Medium Sized Red Beets – you can use other coloured beets if you wish or a combination of colours. You can also use less larger sized beets.
3 Tablespoons Fresh Lemon Juice – here’s my tip for lemon zest and juice
1 teaspoon Lemon Zest
2 Tablespoons Dijon Mustard
2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar – alternate: regular vinegar or a flavoured vinegar of your choice
2 Teaspoons Coconut Sugar – alternate: brown sugar
1 Tablespoon Dried Dill
Generous Pinch of Herbed Seasoned Sea Salt or Plain Sea Salt
Generous Grinds of Fresh Black Pepper – alternate: a pinch of cayenne or a dash of your favourite hot sauce
How It’s Made
Under cool running water in the sink (to avoid getting red beet juice, which can stain, on your cutting board or countertop) peel the beets. Your hands will get red, but washing them with some dish soap will remove the colour.
If you have beets with leaves, you can save the leaves to steam as you would kale, for example, or to chop and put in a stirfry.
Slice the beets in half, then make halfmoon slices the thickness you wish.
Put the beets in a pot that will hold them all, cover with cold water and set on the stovetop to boil until tender – about 20 minutes.
While the beets are cooking, make the dressing.
Whisk all the dressing ingredients in a bowl that will hold all the beets.
After 20 minutes of boiling, Test the beets for doneness by sticking a fork or a sharp knife into a few slices. They should easily pierce the beet.
Drain the beets – keeping the water to add to soups, or to die fabric or hard-boiled eggs!
Add the warm beets to the salad dressing bowl and toss until all the beets are covered in the dressing.
Serve this delicious salad, warm right away, or chill and eat cold. Leftovers are so delicious as they have had more chance to soak up the dressing!
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge. Add leftover beets to a green salad, add to a sandwich or a wrap, throw into a stirfry (at the end, just to warm them up as they are already cooked), or snack on them straight from the container in the fridge (I’ve been caught a few times doing this – as I have caught others too!).
Enjoy!
