Beetroot salad

Inspiration...  A funny little feeling that sometimes creeps up on you out of nowhere, and sometimes just can't make its way to you.  It lives by Murphy's law and is rarely around when you really need it.  Writers, painters and musicians have a love & hate relationship with it, and their livelihood depends on its caprice.  And just like those great artists, hobby chefs like me need inspiration to do the thing they do ;-)

There are tons of ways to find inspiration for new recipes.  This one came to me when I was having lunch with a colleague.  I went for the salad bar and one of the options there was a delicious beetroot salad.  I worked off of the flavors and textures I got back then, adding my personal tweaks in accordance with what I thought would go very well with beetroot.  And voila - this fresh, delicious salad was born. 

This simple and super healthy beetroot salad will give a great vitamin boost to your winter meals.  Beetroot is very good for you, as it is believed to reduce blood pressure, cholesterol and the risk of heart attacks and strokes.  It also helps treat anemia and fatigue It is packed with iron, potassium, magnesium and various vitamins.  Throw in the celery stalks, apple and lemon and you have a "super meal".

The salad is also very delicious.  I love contrasts in textures and flavors, and this is exactly what you will get from this dish.  You have the soft, sweet beetroot, against the fresh and tangy apple, crispy celery stalks, crunchy nuts and rich Greek yoghurt.  Just the combination I was going for.  I hope this will make you start your own experiments with ingredients -- let this be your own inspiration ;-)

METHOD

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 beetroots, boiled and peeled
• 4 long or 5 short celery stalks
• 1 granny smith apple
• handful of pecans, roasted (walnuts of pine nuts would be great as well)
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2-3 tbsp thick Greek yoghurt
• salt & pepper, freshly ground

DIRECTIONS:

• Dice the beetroots, apples and celery stalks.  Sprinkle the apples with lemon juice.  Put everything in a large bowl.
• Roughly chop the roasted pecans, add to the bowl.
• Add the Greek yoghurt, stir thoroughly and season with freshly ground salt & pepper, and lemon juice if necessary.  

Bon appetit!