Festive Beet Salad

During the holiday season, finding balance and grounding is essential to manage stress and enjoy the festivities. This Festive Beet Salad offers vibrant flavours and rich nutrients that support physical wellness and a sense of harmony, making it a perfect addition to your holiday table. We love that it aligns with the grounding practices highlighted in Becca’s October 28th article “Harnessing Holiday Harmony.” Beets connect us with the Earth, nourishing the root chakra, and pecans provide healthy fats and essential minerals. Together, they support energy and stress resilience, helping you stay balanced and grounded during holiday festivities.

Pair this delicious, harmonizing salad with grounding practices from Becca’s article, such as foot soaks or breathwork, to enhance your holiday season with calm and connection!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

  • Balanced Flavours: The sweet roasted beets, peppery arugula, and tangy dairy-free feta create a perfect harmony of flavours.

  • Nutrient-Dense: Packed with essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants from beets, arugula, and pecans, this salad supports overall wellness.

  • Crunchy and Satisfying: Toasted pecans add a satisfying crunch that complements the softer textures of the salad.

  • Grounding and Energizing: Beets provide grounding energy while arugula and pecans contribute healthy fats and fibre to keep you feeling balanced.

  • Simple and Elegant: Easy to prepare but impressive enough for any holiday table, it’s a delicious addition to seasonal meals.

Nutritional Highlights

  • Beets: Beets are rich in antioxidants (molecules that protect your cells), especially betalains (BAY-tuh-layns), which help reduce inflammation. Beets are also packed with folate (a B vitamin important for making DNA and keeping blood cells healthy) and fibre (which supports digestion). Plus, beets contain natural nitrates that improve blood flow, helping keep your heart and blood vessels healthy.

  • Arugula: This leafy green is a great source of vitamins A, C, and K. Vitamin A is key for your vision and skin health, vitamin C supports your immune system, and vitamin K helps with blood clotting and bone strength. Arugula’s spicy flavour comes from glucosinolates (gloo-koh-SIN-oh-lates), natural compounds that help your body detoxify and keep you feeling well overall.

  • Dairy-Free Feta: This cheese substitute is plant-based, so it’s easier to digest than regular dairy. It adds a creamy texture and contains healthy fats, which help keep you full and assist in absorbing fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E, and K.

  • Pecans: These nuts are rich in healthy fats, along with essential minerals like manganese (MAN-guh-neez) and copper, which play a role in metabolism (the process your body uses to convert food into energy). The healthy fats in pecans also help protect your heart and provide a satisfying crunch to this salad.

  • Dried Cranberries: These berries add natural sweetness and are high in fibre and antioxidants like proanthocyanidins (pro-an-tho-SY-an-i-dins). These antioxidants have been linked to urinary tract health and can also help reduce inflammation in the body.

The Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 2 lbs Beets (about 6 medium), scrubbed, roots and stems removed

  • 5 oz Baby Arugula, rinsed and spun dry

  • 1 cup Dairy-Free Feta Cheese, diced or crumbled (Violife is awesome)

  • 1/2 cup Pecans, toasted

  • 1/2 cup Dried Unsweetened Cranberries

  • 1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

  • 3 tbsps Balsamic Vinegar

  • 1 tbsp Dijon Mustard 

  • 1 clove Garlic, pressed or finely minced

  • 1/4 tsp Salt

  • 1/8 tsp Black Pepper

Instructions:

  1. Cook the Beets in the Instant Pot: Place beets on a rack in your Instant Pot with 1 cup of water. Cook for 20 minutes (small beets) or 25 minutes (medium beets). Once cool, peel and slice into wedges.

  2. Toast the Pecans: Toast pecans in a dry skillet over medium heat for about 3-5 minutes until fragrant, then cool.

  3. Assemble the Salad: Add arugula, sliced beets, dairy-free feta, toasted pecans, and cranberries to a large bowl.

  4. Make the Dressing: Combine balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil in a mason jar. Shake well.

  5. Dress and Serve: Drizzle the dressing over the salad to your taste. If you’re not serving immediately, hold off on the dressing until serving and shake again before drizzling.

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xo

Krista

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