Grated Raw Beet Salad | Day 6 of 31 days of Salad

posted on: Friday, January 6, 2012


Grated raw beet salad is a simple salad. It's so very quick to make, and involves so few ingredients, it's basically my go-to salad when I crave simplicity. I love big wooden salad bowls with greens and colorful veggies and fruits inside, but sometimes I just want a simple salad. I want one texture, one smell, one color. This beet salad hits the spot. It gives me the crunchiness I adore, the sweet smell of honey that beets often have, and all in my favorite color .

I would love for you to try this salad.
Simplicity feels so right.

Grated Raw Beet Salad
(printable version)
yields- 4 large servings


2 medium sized beets, washed and pealed
Juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
  1. Grate the beets and put in a medium sized serving bowl.
  2. Make a simple dressing with the lime juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the beets and gently mix.
  3. You can keep this salad refrigerated up to 5 days.
ps. other raw beet salads worth trying 


Today was a simple day.
Just another beach day.




I'm learning that in order to simplify my life the first step I need to take is to simplify my thoughts. I read in a marrige advice column that if you and your spouse fight about the same things over and over again (money, sex, recycling, whatever) then the two of you should pick a day of the month where you'll fight about that one thing. All the other days of the month you can't even bring it up. I loved this advice and decided to first try it out on myself, as a personal growth advice.

I'm a planner. I love to plan for the future, to write down goals, to organize details that are beyond my control. I like to dream up scenarios of things that could happen. And then I worry about them a lot.

In other words I'm not very good at living in the present.

And I want to change that. So, for the past 3 months I've tried to be more present by not allowing myself to worry about the future so much. In fact, I told myself that I can only worry about the future one day out of the whole month.

Today was that day.

Today I thought about babies. Today I thought about pregnancy, and delivery. I thought about health insurance and lack of health insurance. I thought about Baby Maria and how she tells me at least 100 times a day in her mixed English and Portuguese vocab that she loves me - "My amo voce" and then wants me to hold her. Is she ready for a new baby? I tried to meticulously calculate when the perfect time to have our next child will be.

Today I thought about work. I thought about that book proposal I'd like to write and that job I'd like to have and that etsy shop I'd like to open one day. I thought about Christian and the dissertation he needs to write when his fieldwork is over and I even thought about the possible jobs he'll apply for two years from now.

I thought about rent and places we like to live, places that have exuberant rent prices. I thought about buying a house. I thought about building a house. I even thought about living on a boat.

Today I let my mind wonder about the future, and dream up brilliantly planned scenarios of how our lives should be, and could be, and maybe even will be. I did this while we hiked, and while we played in the river, and while I jogged on the beach. I even did it in the ocean, and while I played with the kids, and while Christian and I held hands as we walked together through the luscious green Atlantic Rainforest, up to the hot road, and while we waited for the street bus to bring us back to Itacare.

Now we're home. The kids are asleep and I'm pretty ready to go to bed myself. Tomorrow is another day. Most likely another beach day. Tomorrow I won't allow myself to worry about future babies, or future jobs, or future places we may or may not ever live. Tomorrow I'll eat left over beet salad and remind myself to just take it one day at a time.






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