Sara's (Raw) Beet Salad

". . . the recipe is officially known as "Sara's Beet Salad." Yeah, everyone who has tried it raves about it. What a way to gain fame and immortality!"

This was an excerpt from an email I got from a friend about the fresh beet salad recipe I gave him last summer. I made this salad up after I got back from traveling in South America. It was in Peru and Ecuador that I was first introduced to beets. Until then, I had only seen beets in a can and what a travesty that was -- the beets in the can and my ignorance. In the Andes Mountains, they put fresh steamed beets and raw avocados on beds of lettuce, sprinkled with lime juice and call it a salad. I was inspired by the South American beets -- even though I just realized that I never even learned the word for beets. ( I just looked it up and it is remolacha -- pronounced with the emphasis on the -lach-)

The food in South American markets is so fresh and full of flavor and color that it was really difficult to return to the dull, drabness of the flavors and colors of the typical North American supermarket. The food down south of the border made me feel alive in a way that most conventionally grown food in the US could not live up to. I suppose in retrospect, it was my travels in Latin America that brought me round full circle to my current food preferences and philosophy which includes at its heart: local, seasonal, organically grown, sustainably and justly produced and made from scratch. I hope to make my life work providing food that fits this criteria to as many people as possible.

The beet salad is prepared as follows:

Sara's (Raw) Beet Salad

2 large organic purple beets, shredded
olive oil
fresh lime juice
3-5 fresh cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. fresh ginger, shredded
2-3 Tbsp. red onion, shredded
black or cayenne pepper to taste
1 tsp ground cumin
1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp Bragg's liquid aminos or 1/2 tsp. tamari

Add olive oil to grated beets until beets are just coated, but not swimming in oil.
Add juice of fresh lime, to taste.
Add minced garlic, ginger and onion.
Add pepper to taste.
Add ground cumin, parsley and Bragg's.
Mix well together and serve.
If you serve this salad with avocados, the avocados will really bring this light, airy salad back down to earth. They are a great compliment to each other. However, if you are feeling heavy, slow or sluggish, just eat the beet salad by itself or maybe with some rice or salad greens (even better). It is an excellent cleansing salad.