Citrus and Roasted Beet Salad

This citrus & roasted beet salad from Dr Mark Hyman’s book, FOOD, What the Heck Should I Cook? is super easy to throw together, looks absolutely stunning, and is seriously delicious. This salad is gluten-free, grain-free, and vegan, and will wow your guests this holiday seasons. The natural sweetness of roasted beets combines with the tanginess of the oranges, and the peppery quality of the arugula creates a super flavorful salad that hits all the right notes.

Don’t be put off by the roasted beets. Roasting the beets for this salad is really quick and easy.

How To Roast Beets For A Salad

Place the beets in a glass baking dish or Dutch oven, add 1 cup of filtered water, and cover.
Roast for about 1 hour, until the beets can be easily pierced with a knife or toothpick. Let cool completely
Use your hands to remove the skins from the beets, then cut off the tops and bottoms. Slice the beets into thin rounds, about ⅛-inch thick, and set aside.

That’s it! When you use a mixture of red and golden beets, you get a lovely colorful salad, and a ton of health benefits.

The Health Benefits Of Beets

Dr Hyman is big on the benefits of beets. He says in the headnote for this recipe: “Beets are full of powerful antioxidants that fight inflammation and support detoxification. The deeply colored red ones contain betalain, a unique compound that contributes to these benefits. Golden beets, on the other hand, are a great source of beta-carotene and potassium.”

Beets are also brilliant blood builders. Detox depends on mineral-rich blood, and beets deliver iron, copper, magnesium, and potassium, vitamin C, fiber, and dietary nitrates. Full of folate, beet’s a cell regenerator, too. The anti-inflammatory betaine fights infections, and combats abnormal cell development. Beets also help to cleanse the colon, lymph, and liver.

How To Cut Oranges for a Salad

To get the really pretty effect of this salad, prepare your oranges like this:

Cut off the tops and bottoms. Stand the orange on a cut end and, using a sharp knife, pare away the rind and white pith in strips from top to bottom, following the contour of the fruit. Lay the orange on its side and cut into ¼-inch-thick rounds, yielding 6 to 8 slices.

FOOD: What The Heck Should I Eat?

This gorgeous cookbook is the follow-up companion to Dr Mark Hyman’s best-selling book, FOOD: What the Heck Should I Eat?

There are over 100 recipes that are “pegan” – gluten-free, dairy-free, and free or refined sugars and processed foods.

What the heck is a Pegan diet?

The pegan diet combines some principles of the paleo diet, some principles of a vegan diet, and prescribes a plant-based eating style. So, you eat vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, meat, fish, and eggs. But, you avoid dairy, grains, legumes, sugar, and processed foods.

The book opens with Dr Hyman’s food philosophy, the social implications of our food choices, and the ten principles of a Pegan diet.

The 10 Principles of a Pegan Diet

Plants Should Be The Star
Quality Counts
Go Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free
Limit Gluten-Free Grains
Avoid Sugar and Consume Fruit In Moderation
Eat Clean Meat, Poultry, and Eggs
Choose Low Mercury, Sustainably Harvested Fish
Eat Lots of Healthy Fats
Vegetable Oils are Not a Healthy Food (canola, sunflower, corn, grapeseed, safflower, peanut, palm, soy)
Enjoy Legumes Once In A While

Then, is also there is a section on Creating a Conscious Kitchen with pantry staples and tips for choosing quality foods. I also love the section on Becoming A Conscious Cook, with tips for cooking with the right fats, cooking lower and slower, soaking for better digestion, avoiding boiling,

Pegan Recipes

Then, there’s the recipes. I think this is Dr Hyman’s best book to date. The photography is stunning, and the recipes are incredible. There are a lot of high profile recipe contributors such as: José Andrés, Marco Canora, Dr Mehmet Oz, Mark Bittman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Hugh Jackman, and Gisele Bündchen & Tom Brady.

Some of my favorite pegan recipes include:

Medicinal Mushroom Tonic
Sparkling Emerald Tea
Hemp Seed Bread
Almond Cauliflower Fritters
Raspberry Bliss Bars
Golden Cauliflower Caesar Salad
Tahini Rainbow Cabbage Salad
Anti-Aging Asparagus Soup
Butternut Taco Lettuce Wraps with Hemp Seed Cream
Creamy Truffle Spaghetti with Tempeh
Chocolate-Caramel Almond-Butter Cups
Lemon-Berry Rose Cream Cake

And, of course, this Citrus & Roasted Beet Salad. This salad is a stunner. It is so beautiful, and once you roast your beets, it is very quick and easy to throw together. Prep the beets first, and then assemble all of the other ingredients while the beets are roasting.

Get your copy of FOOD: What The Heck Should I Cook, and learn more about Dr Mark Hyman.

Let me know what you think of this Citrus and Roasted Beet Salad in the comments!

Your feedback is important, and it helps me decide which recipes to post next for you.

Other Delicious Beet Recipes

Roasted Beet Dip
Brilliant Beet Latte
Beet Hummus
Beet Granola
Pineapple Orange Ginger Beet Smoothie

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