This delicious salad makes a full meal and can be made in just 8 minutes.
Honest – from opening the fridge to see what I might find, to clean up and ready to serve, this salad entree took 8 minutes. One thing that helps is having a “Well Stocked Pantry” – always have a variety of greens, beans, fruits, veggies on hand. Today I opened the fridge at 2:18 for a late lunch, and saw the Tupperware container of kidney beans (the first half of the can was heated and spiced with Turmeric and Cumin and served over baked yams for supper the other night). And then I saw the pickled beets, mixed greens and kale. With those set out on the counter it was obvious that an orange would go well with this. And look at all the colors – which means a whole rainbow of nutrients.
Beans, Beets and Greens and an Orange
These organic greens are pre washed and I heaped the plate with them first. Organic kale is easy to get in bunches even in the winter. I washed those and stripped off the leaves onto the salad. The order of adding ingredients is important, because next comes the orange. I cut this and squeezed this over the kale and massage the juice into the kale pieces; this takes any bitter edge out of the kale taste, and tenderizes.
Yes, leave all that white “stuff” on the orange.
This “pith” is high in fiber that helps lower cholesterol levels. It also contains 50% of the vitamin C content of the orange. Pith also contains hesperidin, a flavonoid, which can help blood vessels function better and reduce inflammation. Along with other flavonoids oranges (including the pith and peel as well as the fruit) contain naringenin, which has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects; it also can help reduce carbohydrate absorption from the intestinal tract, which could reduce rapid rises in blood sugar after eating.
Enjoy Legumes Daily!
Next I added the beets, (read about other ways to cook beets) and then the kidney beans (Great Northerns or whatever bean is your favorite would also be delicious on this); this is a great way to get your “daily” legumes. Legumes are such a great source of fiber, protein, numerous vitamins AND it stimulates the endothelial cells to produce more nitric oxide, that marvelous blood vessel dilating, anti – sticky, smoothing molecule. Read more about the importance of Nitric Oxide (NO) and the foods that help produce it in this article about Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn’s ground breaking work.
Beets, Orange, Kidney Beans and Kale for an Entree Salad
By 2:26 I had added the balsamic vinaigrette, washed the tupperware container and knife, and put away the remainder of greens etc. DELICIOUSLY NUTRITIOUS and BEAUTIFUL meal in 8 minutes!!
