Raw Beet Salad

This raw beet salad is one of those recipes that combines super healthy with super tasty, all in one delicious salad.

Until I was served this amazing salad at a pot luck dinner, I never imagined using raw beets.

I love beets in all their forms. Pickled beets, hot sliced beets as a side dish with dinner, cold sliced beets in a salad. All are delicious. But raw beets, really? Well, yes really.

I thought that raw beets would be too hard to chew, but they aren’t if they are prepared correctly. Grating the beets makes them very east to eat, just like eating the raw carrots that are grated and added to this salad as well.

Raw beets are absolutely delicious. A bit messy if you aren’t careful, but absolutely delicious.

And oh how they look in the bowl. The rich color of beets (also called beetroots in some countries) make this salad look like little jewels in a bowl.

And now for the health benefits of eating this amazing vegetable…

Health Benefits of Beets

Beets are a very nutritious vegetable and a good one to include in our diets on a regular basis. Now you’ll have a new delicious way to enjoy them in this raw beet salad recipe.

Beets are particularly high in folate, copper and manganese, all essential for good health.

Folate has been shown to reduce our risk for heart disease and cancer.

Copper keeps our immune systems healthy. It also helps to create red blood cells, among its other wonderful benefits to our bodies.

Manganese is essential to ensuring our metabolism is at peak and also aids in wound healing and the development of healthy bones.

The phytonutrients in red beets, called betalains, have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and cancer-fighting properties.

Beet greens are really healthy too. They have lots of vitamins A, C, K, and B2. So if the beets you buy come with the greens still attached, and they are nice and fresh, add them to your next salad or saute them with spinach and garlic for a healthy side dish.

Shredding the Raw Beet Salad

The raw beets really need to be shredded for this salad, not chopped or sliced.

Raw beets are quite hard and very difficult to cut when they are raw. They would also be more difficult for our bodies to digest in big raw chunks, so it is important to cut them into small pieces.

So get out the grater and grate your beets. It doesn’t take very long and you end up with a bowl full of nice shreds of beet, easily digestible and very yummy.

You can use your food processor as well. The food processor is certainly faster and it will grate the beets for sure, but you won’t get those nice shreds of beet that you will if you use a box grater or something similar.

Choose your preferred way to shred the beets. Food processor for speed or the grater for nice shredded beets that will make a beautiful salad.

I also shred the carrots in this recipe. If you shred the carrots as well as the beets, you will have a salad that looks nice and uniform and looks wonderful on the plate.

Raw Beet Salad Add-Ins

There are also a couple of add-ins that you can add to the salad.

One of them that you can add to this healthy beet salad recipe is freshly grated apple. The apple will add a nice touch of sweetness that goes really well with the beets and the carrots.

Chopped onions add a bit of zing and are a nice addition as well. I often just serve this salad as it is in the recipe though as it’s a nice mix as it is.

Your Choice of Vinegar

The recipe states that you can use either apple cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar. Both will be delicious, each one adding a slightly different taste to the beet recipe.

I tend to go with apple cider vinegar because I love it’s taste as well as the wonderful health benefits of using apple cider vinegar.

That said, the balsamic vinegar is delicious too, so if that is your preference, know that it will work wonderfully in this beet salad too.

You can also use other vinegars if you prefer. Wine vinegar, herbed vinegar, or even the plain old standby white vinegar works, although other vinegars are so much more yummy, so I prefer to go with something else.

The amount of olive oil and vinegar you use is up to you. The vegetables just need to be nicely coated with the olive oil. The amount of tang in the salad depends on how much vinegar you use. I would suggest starting out with the amount stated in the recipe and adding more if you want more of that vinegar tang. And of course, salt and pepper to taste.

This is your finished product.

Let me know if you try this recipe. There is a comments section on the bottom of the page. I’d love you to add your comments and your own wonderful recipes.

Now you are all set to make a healthy salad. Have a look at our other beet recipes too:

This orange and beet salad is another way to enjoy this wonderful vegetable.

Here is another beet recipe to look at if you like this raw beet salad recipe. Harvard beets are cooked, then baked in the oven for great taste.

You can browse all of our vegetable recipes here.

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