Borcht Salad

This is a staple of my diet—brilliant in color, rich in flavor and abundant in body-benefitting nutrients. For each person, wash, spin dry and tear into bite size pieces, five leaves of a dark green organically grown lettuce, or use two cups of organic cafe salading (baby greens). Peel and grate a carrot and a small beet, and thinly slice some red cabbage and peeled red onion, add some of each to your lettuce. Dress with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and Bragg’s Liquid Aminos (the mysterious soy sauce without salt), or ground Himalayan salt, and ground black pepper to taste.

This recipe can be multiplied for any size gathering. In that case, I prefer to grate the carrots, beets and cabbage in a food processor or the Champion juicer without the juice screen under the grinder.

Sometimes I make it into a one-dish meal by adding protein: cubed tofu, cooked garbanzo beans, cubed cold cooked chicken or turkey, toasted sunflower or pumpkin seeds, grated or cubed cheese, or not-quite-hard-boiled eggs (boil for 7 minutes only, then cool in ice water). The beets will dye all of these an indistinguishable magenta.

If I’m having company, I might offer additional, optional flavors: avocado slices, pitted black olives, or marinated artichoke hearts. If I’m NOT having company, I like to crush a clove of garlic into the olive oil before adding it to the salad.