Firecracker Red & Gold Raw Beet Ribbons

Visually stunning, the vibrant colors in this salad will help you forget you're not wild about raw foods. I surprised myself when, during my taste test, I enjoyed the triple crunch of beets, snow peas, and sesame seeds so much that I ate all the extras put aside in case I needed them for the photo shoot.

It took a bit of practice to figure out how to "shave" the beets into ribbons with my vegetable cutter, but eventually it all came together. After marinating in the dressing, the yellow beets were the sweetest. I modified the recipe from Food & Wine Magazine to my taste, but offer up the julienned shiso leaves and crushed coriander as options if you'd like.

Beets are loaded with B vitamins, iron, manganese, copper, magnesium and potassium - low in calories, and high in fiber. Enjoy this earthy side salad with chopsticks.

My Paleo Marin: 3.8 Persimmons

Ingredients:

1/2 pound snow peas
1 1/2 pounds mixed red and yellow beets, medium size

Kuhn 4" Peeler
Image from Google Images

1/4 cup grape seed oil
1/4 Teaspoon hot chili oil (or more according to personal preference)
2 Teaspoons Red Boat Fish Sauce (or more according to taste)
2 Teaspoons honey (or more according to taste)
Juice of 1 lime
Juice of 1 lemon
1 Tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
Kosher salt to taste

Garnish: Toasted sesame seeds; Thai basil (julienned), or arugula

Optional: 8 shiso leaves, thinly sliced; 1 Tablespoon crushed coriander seeds

Directions

1. Blanch the snow peas in bolding salted water for about 1 minute. Place pods in an ice bath to cool, then drain and pat dry. Cut off ends, and chop crosswise into 1/2" pieces. Put in a medium sized bowl. 

2. Cut the bottom and top off of the beets. Peel the beets with a vegetable peeler. Carefully run the peeler around the sides of the beets to create a thin ribbon of beet. Tear into bite-sized pieces, and put them in the bowl with the peas.

3. Whisk together the oils, fish sauce, honey, and citrus juices. Pour over the beets and snow peas. Stir in the sesame seeds, and salt to taste. Chill the salad for about an hour.

4. When ready to eat, top with garnishes and serve.

#paleo #raw #salad #beets #snowpeas #shisho #asian #glutenfree #healthyeats 

*Recipe adapted from Food and Wine Magaziine, June 2017

My Paleo Marin Rating 1-5 Persimmons

I try out these recipes so you don't have to (and modify them for Paleo where possible). The rating will reflect my opinion of the final result in terms of taste, ease of preparation, nutrition, and sometimes, cost.