Beetroot & Sprout Salad with Flaxseed-Lemon Dressing
Beetroot turns the whole bowl pink. Sprouts snap, cucumber is cold, peanuts crack between the teeth, and a raw flaxseed and lemon dressing pulls it together.
Ingredients
Serves 2
- 1 medium beetroot (about 150 g)
- 1 cup (100 g) mixed sprouts (moong, moth or chana), rinsed
- 1 small cucumber, cut into small cubes
- 1 small carrot, grated
- 1 small onion, sliced thin (optional)
- 2 tbsp roasted peanuts, roughly crushed
- 2 tbsp pomegranate seeds (optional)
- A small handful of fresh coriander or mint leaves
- 1½ tbsp Cold Pressed Flaxseed Oil (used raw, never heated)
- 1½ tbsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp jaggery powder or honey
- ½ tsp roasted cumin powder
- ¼ tsp black pepper, crushed
- ¼ tsp chaat masala (optional)
- ½ tsp salt, or to taste
Quantities are scaled up. Taste as you go and adjust the salt and spice.
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Everything you need, from our press house
Two in the afternoon in April, the fan on full, and nobody in the house wants to light the gas. This is the bowl for that hour. Boiled beetroot cut into cubes, sprouts still crunchy, cucumber straight from the fridge, roasted peanuts crushed rough. The dressing goes on and within a minute everything has turned the same deep pink. You eat it cold, standing at the counter, and it does the job of a full lunch.
The dressing is where our wooden cold pressed flaxseed oil belongs, and it never goes near a flame. Not a tadka, not a warm pan. Heat turns it sharp and bitter within seconds and there is no coming back. Used raw and cold it tastes gently nutty, almost like sesame but softer, and that is exactly what lemon, roasted cumin and a little jaggery need to lean on. Keep the bottle in the fridge once opened and finish it in a couple of months, while it still smells sweet.
The one thing that decides this salad is when you dress it. Toss it five minutes before you eat, not an hour earlier. Salt pulls water out of cucumber and beetroot fast, and a bowl that sat around dressed will be sitting in a pink puddle with limp sprouts. Mix, wait five minutes, top with the peanuts and eat.
How to make it
- Boil the beetroot with its skin in water for 20 minutes, or pressure cook for 2 whistles, till a knife slides in easily. Cool, peel and cut into small cubes. In a hurry? Peel and grate it raw for extra crunch.
- Rinse the sprouts well. Use them raw for crunch, or steam for 2 to 3 minutes if you like them softer. Cool.
- Make the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk the flaxseed oil, lemon juice, jaggery powder, cumin powder, pepper, chaat masala and salt till the jaggery dissolves. Taste. It should be tangy first, then a little sweet.
- In a big bowl, put the sprouts, beetroot, cucumber, carrot and onion.
- Pour the dressing over and toss well. The beetroot will turn everything pink. That is the fun of it.
- Let it sit for 5 minutes so the dressing soaks in. Top with the peanuts, pomegranate and herbs. Serve at room temperature or chilled.
Tips
- Make it a full meal: add 1 cup boiled chana, paneer cubes or a boiled egg.
- Prep ahead: keep the cut vegetables and the dressing in separate boxes in the fridge for up to a day. Toss just before eating so the sprouts stay crunchy.
- Flaxseed oil lives in the fridge after opening. Take it out, use it, put it back. Never cook with it.
- No sprouts? Use 1 cup boiled whole moong or boiled corn instead.
