BEETS! In an old Nickelodeon show 'Doug,' Quail Man had a line that beets were "nature's candy." I couldn't agree more. Doug's favorite band was also incidentally named The Beets. Beets are uber-nutritious and delicious (providing vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, C, and a compound that helps detoxify the liver. Add the beet greens and you also get a butt-ton of iron)!
Beets can be used in numerous ways, from roasted as a side to a fresh ingredient for juices and smoothies to a hearty addition to a salad. You can also use the bitter greens and cook them in the same way you'd cook spinach or swiss chard. Since it's still summer, I decided to give you guys beet salad two ways. Enjoy!
ROASTED BEET & GOAT CHEESE SALAD
Ingredients:
- 1 small beet, roasted or boiled then diced (I like roasting them better because it keeps a lot of the flavor intact, whereas so much color and juice leaks out into the water if you boil it. That said, boiling is a tad bit faster)
- 2 cups greens (I used a baby spinach/baby arugula mix)
- 1/8 cup shaved red onion (white's okay, though)
- 1.5 tbsp goat cheese, crumbled (optional for vegans, but otherwise I think it offsets the aggressiveness of the raw onion really nicely, so don't skimp)
- 2 tsp olive oil
- salt to taste
- Sprinkle with crushed pistachios (optional)
Put it all together. Toss. DONE.
MOROCCAN BEET SALAD
- 1 large beet, roasted and diced
- Juice from 1/2 a lemon
- Parsley
- Salt to taste
Put it all together. Toss. DONE.
And remember - if your urine or poo looks like there is blood in it a day or so after eating a lot of beets, it's probably because you ate a lot of beets, not because you have a kidney infection. Pink pee is hilarious. When talking about this to my friend Emily, we decided that all women pee magenta-colored pee all the time in the minds of men...just like we also burp glitter and fart rainbows.
Items not donated or dumpstered: salt, goat cheese, parsley (from garden)
