This beet salad couldn’t be simpler to make. Beets (roasted, canned, red, or golden) are mixed with salty, crumbled feta cheese, sweet and crunchy cucumbers, and tangy fresh dill. Everything is tossed in a super simple dressing made from lemon juice, extra-virgin olive oil, and kosher salt. That’s it! It’s such a delicious lettuce-free salad that’s packed with super nutritious ingredients. First of all, beets. Rich in vitamins, fiber, minerals, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory properties, beets are a nutritional powerhouse. I’m trying to eat more of them, since I only discovered that I liked them fairly recently. Beets are one of those things that “kids don’t like.” Like meatloaf. WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THAT? OK first of all, I don’t know how meatloaf got a bad reputation. It’s basically a giant meatball. And what could be better than that? But beets! Good Lord, they’re delicious. Sweet and earthy, with a crisp but soft texture and the most beautiful color. I’m making up for lost years by getting as many as I can! And thank goodness, my toddler loves them too. The addition of cucumbers, dill, fresh lemon juice, extra-virgin olive oil, and a little bit of feta cheese add to the delicious taste and nutrition of this beet salad. It’s the perfect Mediterranean Diet recipe, packed with plant-based goodness and dressed in the healthy fats found in extra-virgin olive oil. If you’ve never cooked with beets before, they can be a bit intimidating. As a shortcut, you can use canned beets for this. Canned beets are delicious, and it’s a great way to enjoy them even when they aren’t in season. But if you want, you can roast your own beets. It’s super easy to do. Just trim the greens off (if they come with them), wash them clean, wrap them in foil individually, drizzled with about a tablespoon of olive oil, and bake for about an hour at 400 degrees F. After they’re done, wait for them to cool. Then, they are super easy to peel. You can just use your hands to slide the skin right off! But that brings me to another point- red beets are VERY red. And they will stain things. If you have marble countertops or other surfaces that are easily stained, be careful. And if you are concerned about your hands getting red, wear gloves. The dye scrubs off after a few washes, but it is kind of a pain. As an alternative, you can always make this with golden beets! They taste almost identical to red beets, but are far less messy, and are still a gorgeous color. You can also easily cook beets in your slow cooker or instant pot. If you have leftover beet greens, don’t throw them out. You can use them as you would spinach or kale- add them to soups, sauté them with some scrambled eggs or throw them in a frittata, or eat them in a salad. Another thing to keep in mind: the red color of the beets WILL turn everything pink in this beet salad. It’s actually quite pretty, in my opinion. But if you want to maintain the purity of all the different ingredients when you serve it, I recommend saving a few cucumbers, some feta, and some dill to sprinkle on top after everything else is mixed together. That’s what I did when I took these photos.
Other flavor-packed salad recipes
Roasted Beet Salad with Grapefruit VinaigretteEgyptian Barley Salad with Pomegranate and FetaMango Quinoa SaladWatermelon Salad with Queso Fresco, Lime, and Cilantro.
