Beetroot Strawberry Salad

By Charlotte Carson

Your diet can help shift your health by targeting with foods that are known to assist in healing specific areas.  By bulking up your salads with healthy choices, like beetroot, instead of croutons, cheeses and sugary dressing, you can make small shifts that work for you behind the scenes.

Benefits of beetroot

  • Blood pressure improves: A study published in Hypertension in 2008, found that folks who drank the red beetroot juice drop in blood pressure and less blood clotting three hours later, compared to those who drank water. 
  • Your heart rate risk may drop: Rich in a plant alkaloid called , as well as the B-vitamin , which together deliver a one-two punch for , which in high levels increases your risk for artery damage and heart disease.
  • May improve stamina: Lots of athletes eat beets—they know research has suggested that performance—and beets contain pigments that turn urine pink. In one study, cyclists who drank beet juice could in a time trial to exhaustion. Your liver will be lighter. Your liver does the heavy work of cleaning your blood and “detoxing” your body. You can lighten its load with a daily serving of beets. Research shows that , an amino acid found in beets (as well as spinach and quinoa) can help prevent and reduce the accumulation of fat in the liver.

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Recipe

Ingredients
Beet & Berry Salad 
  • 1 ½ cup strawberries
  • 1/3 pine nuts
  • 5 ounces spring green mix
  • 1 medium beet chopped and roasted
Raspberry Fig Vinaigrette 
  • ¼ cup raspberries
  • 1 tablespoon fig preserves or more to taste
  • 1/3 cup grape seed avocado, or olive oil
  • 1/3 cup rice vinegar or cider vinegar
  • Pinch cinnamon optional

 

 

Instructions
Raspberry-Fig Vinaigrette 
  1. Add all of the ingredients for the vinaigrette to a small blender and blend until combined.
  2. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Beet & Berry Salad 
  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. Scrub the beet and pat it dry. Chop it into 1/2-inch to 1-inch chunks, then wrap the pieces in foil packet. Place packet on a baking sheet and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until beets are soft and juices are seeping out. Allow beet to cool to room temperature.
  3. Add the ingredients for the salad to a large serving bowl. Toss in desired amount of raspberry fig vinaigrette and serve (keep leftover vinaigrette in a sealed jar in the refrigerator for future salads).

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