Hi and welcome to healthtalks.
Today we’re in the kitchen with Sam
and she’s going to whip up something really delicious.
Thanks Mel -
well today we’re going to make a Beetroot Salad out of this beautiful beetroot.
It’s fabulous for helping to detox the liver,
the leaves especially help to tonify the blood and we can make a tea with that on another day but ...
for this salad I need to cut the root off the beetroot – the actual vegetable component.
Now we just need to trim it up a little bit.
You can actually eat all this can't you.
You can eat all that but you have to be mindful, you can eat this fresh on the day.
Otherwise like spinach it releases something called Oxalic-acid
which causes a lot of acidity in the body.
So while they’re in their fresh state like that we can make them into a tea
with ginger and lemon-grass just by covering them with water.
Yum!
- That’s another day. - Yeah.
But today, just clean up the beets.
You can peel them.
This is a bit quicker?
This is a little bit easier. Yes
I’m using a boning knife as it has a little bit of flexibility in it
which means that as I curl it around the vegetable … it takes the peel off.
Now if these were young baby beetroots I could just scrub them and use them
because they’re organic they’ve got all the nutrients .. mostly in the skin.
But these are a little bit older so like the Grandma of the Beetroot family !
So if someone wasn’t buying organic, you would definitely suggest peeing it?
That’s right. Obviously most vegetables and fruit if they’re sprayed with any kind of pestcides
and most conventional produce is
then the greater surface area is going to absorb most of those pesticides
and so that’s where the chemical compounds are going to lie.
So, we’ll just use two of these.
Clean them up a little bit more.
And we just don’t need to be adding more toxins ….
No not at all.
And the intention of this is to detoxify the body, cleanse the liver, purify the blood
and most people don’t know that one of the most powerful minerals in Beetroot is Chlorine
Oh!?
So Chlorine, like you put in the swimming pool which helps to clean water,
well Beetroot has a similar compound.
I’m just going to cut them into cubes.
And today I’m going to use this machine over here which is called a Thermamix
purely because it creates this salad really quickly.
So I’m just using these two Beetroots that are all cleaned up
I’ll put them in …. and with that just a little bit of mint
because mint and Beetroot are really good friends.
So this is a really nice light alkalising salad.
And what’s mint good for?
Again its energizing. Its very alkalising and very uplifting.
We know from our peppermint teas that it helps to wake us up and keep us alert.
It’s also quite motivational as well.
Mmm and it smells beautiful.
Now even the offcuts, I’ve put all of that into a stockpot, add ginger and cover it with water,
a twist of lemon grass and that’s a beautiful tea.
Oh my gosh!
We’ll have that after.
Here’s a little more mint that’s hanging around.
We can put in a tiny piece of ginger.
Again just clean it up. It was peeled a little bit earlier.
What is ginger good for?
Well ginger is an anti-inflammatory
and ginger and beetroot are particularly good friends as well.
They have a really beautiful synergy together.
So the beetroot’s going to cleanse the body – cleanse the cells, purify the blood
and then the ginger helps to reduce inflammation in the body and it’s also anti- nausea.
Oh great.
So that helps with motion sickness, morning sickness
- wine sickness….. - Ah there you go!
So beetroot & ginger are useful as a hangover cure.
Now, into here a little bit of Macadamia nut oil.
This particular one comes from the Byron Bay area and it’s rich in Omega 7
And again it’s anti-inflammatory. A beautiful nut flavour….obviously.
And some middle eastern Rose water …. Which I need you to smell
because it smells better than it looks.
Oh my gosh!
It’s very feminine, its very Yin, it’s an aphrodisiac,
it’s used a lot in ayurvevic medicine and I think its good.
The smell of summer ….. a little bit of that to lift all those other flavours.
This is really quick and you could do this in any type of food processor.
It just happens to work really quickly in this one.
But you can just use your normal processor at home.
This is super quick ….just needs to reset.
Makes a noise !!
And you kinda know its done after 6 seconds.
- Oh my gosh!! That was so quick. - Which is amazing.
This is really beautiful to have with something like
a seared Tasmanian salmon fillet. - Beautiful
A little bit of chicken.....
Ah – it would lend itself to Moroccan style lamb.
And now you just need to spoon it out.
Smells beautiful. You can really smell the rose
Yeah the aromatics are beautiful,
and the ginger just helps to harmonise it
and give it a little bit of a lift.
You could add a pinch of Cayenne Pepper,
you could take it up a notch with a little bit of chilly if you wanted to.
And then we just finish with the Pepitas.
Again essential fatty acids, rich in beautiful minerals,
lots of calcium in our nuts and seeds.
These have been activated, which means they’re soaked and then they’re dehydrated.
So they’re crunchier than the normal Pepitas.
More importantly they’ve been through a little enzyme renascence,
so they’re a lot more powerful than the ones we would buy conventionally.
From here …. pomegranate.
Now pomegranate … again very aphrodisiac.
So this is a very sexy little salad this.
For Valentines Day
For Valentines Day …or any other day that might need a little bit of a lift.
Vitamin C.
The skin or the pith of the pomegranate is rich in bioflavonoids,
so again immune boosting qualities as well.
Very energizing. One of the oldest fruits.
Cleopatra was known to eat pomegranates.
Oh Wow.
While she was bathing in milk probably !
Yeah!
And then we have some beautiful edible flowers to finish your plate.
So health food doesn’t have to be boring
and my things is, that is doesn’t have to be BROWN!
Exactly.
You can have beautiful coloured food …
and you don’t need too much of this because its quite strong.
So that’s the finished product …as a side dish.
Wow …that was so easy…. And quick.
So easy and so quick.
Most people say ..”hey I don’t eat beetroot. I don't like it ...
I can’t open the can”. Well this is all you have to do.
Exactly. And its so highly beneficial for you.
Yeah. And it will last a couple of days.
So that’s the beetroot, pomegranate, rosewater and pepitas salad.
Can’t wait to try it.
There you go you can have some now.
Have a little taste.
Its pretty good.
You’ll like it.
Oh my gosh …. That is amazing.
I can really taste the ginger and the rose ... Oh my gosh!
And you can add lime juice. You van do a whole bunch of things.
But thats a good base to start from.
You guys are going to love this recipe. Its so good.
- Thank you so much. - My pleasure. Enjoy