Beet Salad

This is a hearty salad and has a lovely freshness from the fresh chopped parsley (do try to use fresh parsley for this, it adds a tremendous amount of flavor). It starts off with the bright green of the parsley and peas but when left overnight in the fridge (this does very well made ahead and keeps well for 4-5 days but I find goes very fast indeed) it is tinted pinky-red by the beets, which is not a bad thing, it’s kinda cool looking. But, if you want the pretty green/red contrast, just make the salad closer to serving time or alternatively, prepare the salad just keep the cut up beets separately from the rest of the ingredients till right before serving, if you wish.

While I can roast a beet (or boil them) with the best of them, I find it really the simplest thing in the world to make this salad with the vacuum packed cooked beets which basically cuts your prep time down to almost nothing. So gather your ingredients and see how fast it comes together!

A note. There are more pickles and beets and red onion in this recipe than pictured above, no worries, it’s all reflected below in the recipe. K.

Rinse the frozen peas twice and drain. That’s it, don’t cook them. They are par boiled (slightly cooked) and you don’t want mushy peas but rather peas with a pop to them. Place the peas and the chopped parsley in a nice sized bowl, remember you will need to toss with the dressing, so better to err on the size of a larger bowl.

Chop your pickles and beets into bite size pieces.

As you see, I cubed the beets and sliced the pickles and they are more or less similar in bite size. This gives you a nice mouthful in every bit.

See how pretty the colors are? Now add the pickle juice, the chopped red onion (better red, it has a slightly sweet tang thing going on) and toss.

Add the oil, mayo, salt and pepper. Toss, toss, toss till nicely coated. As mentioned above, let sit a while (in the fridge) or serve immediately to have the red/green contrast. Either way, you will enjoy the combo of slight crunch of the peas and pickles with the chew of the beets. Just before serving, taste a bite to see if it needs more salt. Remember, beets are sweet and depending on your batch after it sits a bit it might need a bit more salt. A lovely, colorful, hearty salad.

Beet Salad

1 cup (143 grams) frozen peas

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1 cup (150 grams) pickles with 2 teaspoons pickle juice

Cooked beets (500 grams) about 16 ounces

2 tablespoon chopped red onion or 2 teaspoons dried minced onion

3-4 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Directions:

Rinse the frozen peas twice, draining them each time. Do not cook them, you want the slight crunch. Place the peas and parsley in a large bowl. Chop the pickles in slices and beets in cubes and add to the bowl. Add the onion, salt and pepper, mayo and olive oil and toss well to coat. If you let the salad sit in the fridge overnight or for a few days, be warned the beets tint everything pink (kind of cool) but if you want the contrast of red and green, prepare the salad closer to serving time. Hearty and delicious.