Paleo Beet Salad

When I visited my family in the Middle East last year, my mom always had two types of salad in the refrigerator. This beautiful red beet salad and another cabbage salad, that I’ll talk about in another post.

I bought a lot of beets recently for a 72 hour juice cleanse that I was doing. I ended up not juicing the third day and had a lot of beets left over. I called my mom for her recipe but, unfortunately, it wans’t Paleo. My dad’s recipe, however, was. He is also an incredible cook and his beet salad is so delicious. This isn’t the traditional Middle Eastern beet salad, this is a Middle Eastern beet salad- Musa style. Musa is my dad and he told me to make sure I gave him credit for his salad, he’s too cute!

Beets are full of vitamins and nutrients and have too many health benefits to list them all. Not only do they lower blood pressure and inflammation, they also fight off cancer and make you smarter. Who doesn’t want that? I know I do.

The sweetness of the beets mixed with the acidity of the lemon and vinegar is the perfect combination. Thank you baba for sharing your very delicious and healthy recipe. I hope you enjoy this salad as much we did!

Ingredients:

• 9 *Beets (that’s how many I used- you can use more or less and adjust the recipe)
• 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar (you can substitute with apple cider vinegar)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Instructions:

1. Wash your beets.
2. Cut both ends off.
3. Place beets in a large pot of water with a pinch of sea salt.
4. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 45 minutes to an hour or until fork tender.
5. Once they are done, place in a large colander and rinse with cold water.
6. They should peel easily once you run them under cold water.
7. Cut each beet in half and each half into quarters and place in a large bowl.
8. In a small bowl, mix together the rest of the ingredients.
9. Mix all of your ingredients together and store in an air tight container and put in the fridge until ready to eat. (Keep in the fridge for up to three days. Mine lasted a day and a half).

Sahtain!

*Arabic word for beets: banjar