No-oil beet greens salad

Beets are wonderful root vegetables. Their bright and red color, sometimes a bit intimidating because beets can stain so much, is indicative of the plant nutrients they contain. But what about beet greens?

This no-oil beet greens salad offers a wonderful way to utilize more than roots and maximize nutrient diversity. We made it with a lemon mustard dressing.

When looking at beet greens, their nutrition data shows they contain vitamin K, several of the vitamin B family, making them a vegetable rich in micronutrients and antioxidants. If you buy fresh beets, the red root part is generally good and can be kept in the fridge for a few days. But the greens fade and dry much faster. So at the store, I look for the freshest looking greens in an equally important was as the freshness of the root.

They also make a nice change from the usual greens. Spinach, lettuce, arugula, these leaves are very common and what people mostly use for salads. Beet greens provide an original take, a less frequent ingredient for salad, which given their nutrition profile, makes them a hidden gem.

Using lemon juice and French mustard as the salad dressing, it felt that the end result did not require adding oil or salt. It would have tasted fine with oil and salt, but if the difference in taste is negligible, it comes down to whether we consume more fat and salt in our diet, or not.

We paired this salad with a vegan aioli platter, which, in fact, was made with olive oil and avocado oil. So in total, it equates to just less fat when looking at everything we eat, and it feels like balance.