Beet, Hemp Hearts & Parsley: Your New Hearty Antioxidant Salad Buddies

As you get to know me, you’ll soon realize that I LOVE a good salad. They’re such a great opportunity to cram a bunch of veggies into one meal, while delivering on flavor. Bonus points for a salad that can hold-its-own at any time of year. This hearty antioxidant salad certainly makes the grade!

The other day, I was craving tabbouleh. Yet, it was about 50 degrees outside and I called ‘crazy’ on myself. Tabbouleh and all of its parsley-filled goodness is truly a summer salad (hello, ripe tomatoes). So I cobbled together some ingredients that could potentially fit the bill.

Parsley served the parsley role. (Duh) Then, I substituted beets for tomatoes. Instead of bulgur, I opted for higher protein and antioxidant rich hemp hearts. From there, feta and almonds just felt right.

My Favorite Salad Ingredient Strategy

I think you’ll agree with me that this hearty salad does a fantastic job of checking a lot of yummy boxes. To me, each salad needs to have a great balance of ingredients, without overdoing it, Achieving that balance typically means a base (greens or grains), ‘hero’ veggie, texture and savory touch.

This salad’s breakdown is as follows:

• Base = Parsley
• Hero = Beets
• Texture = Almonds
• Savory = Hemp Hearts (nutty) & Feta (creamy/salty)

If you add too many more things, then it becomes confusing to your palette. Too few, snooze.

Bonus: A Universal Dressing

This recipe includes one of my favorite yummy-on-everything salad dressing. So if anything, make sure to take note and save it to your recipe file. I’ve used this dressing as a household standard on so many salads. It delivers once again on this hearty antioxidant salad.

Olive oil and lemon juice are a phenomenal partnership for any dressing recipe. You can make it as-is, or feel free to add fresh herbs, red pepper flakes or other seasoning to adjust for nearly any salad.

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