A delicious vegan Raw Beet Salad with Avocado, tender greens, sprouts, toasted pumpkin seeds, pickled shallots, tossed in a flavorful, creamy, vegan Cashew Basil Dressing. Vegan!
This Raw Beet Salad is packed full of nutrients. It’s loaded up with fresh raw grated beets, avocado, greens, sprouts, and pumpkin seeds and tossed with a creamy, vegan Cashew Basil Dressing.
What I love about this Beet Salad
- The beets are RAW! Fresh raw grated beets have so much flavor and beautiful texture.
- High nutrients! My body feels energized and alive when I eat this salad!
- The Creamy Basil Cashew Dressing is seriously good- AND it’s vegan!
- Pickled shallots (or pickled onions) or sauerkraut! all add a nice acidity
Health Benefits of Beets
Raw, juiced, steamed or roasted, beets are a superfood containing powerful antioxidants, phytochemicals and polyphenols that keep us healthy and young!
Beets are high in betaine which acts as a methyl donor. Methylation is a process that switches on “good, healthy” genes, and/or switches off “unhealthy” genes infuluencing whether they are expressed or suppressed- very important in our celular health.
Ingredients in Raw Beet Salad
- Beets- red, yellow or Chioggia, grated
- Greens- arugula, baby kale, power greens
- Avocados
- Pumpkin seeds
- Pickled shallots-or sub pickled onions or kraut
- Microgreens
- Cashew Basil Dressing
The pickled shallots and Cashew Basil Dressing really elevate this salad!
Feel free to toss the salad, or keep components separate.
Optional Add-Ons:
This Raw beet salad is tasty on its own, but if you are looking for extra protein feel free to add:
- The Best Grilled Chicken
- Baked Tofu with 3 Flavorful Marinades! or Crispy Tofu
- Lentils or chickpeas
xoxo
More Beet recipes you may like:
- Beet Tzatziki
- Farro Salad with Beets and their Tops
- Beet, Lentil and Spinach Salad with Pomegranate Dressing
- Beet Bliss Bowl
- Delicious Beet Salad Recipe with Feta & Pistachios
- Poke Beets!
Raw Beet Salad with Avocado
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 2
- Category: Salad, main, vegan, raw
- Method: tossed
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Raw Beet Salad with Avocado, pumpkin seeds, pickled shallots (or sauerkraut), power greens, sprouts with a Cashew Basil dressing. Vegan and GF! Allow 6 hours cashew soaking time- or see notes for a quick tip!
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup raw cashews, soaked in water until soft (see notes)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 cup packed basil leaves (or substitute Italian parsley or mix of both)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 3-4 ounces greens- spinach, arugula, baby kale, spring mix.
- 1 medium beet, peeled and grated
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
- 1 large avocado, sliced
- 1/2 cup microgreens or fresh sprouts (sunflower sprouts are nice here)
- optional additions- pickled shallots, or sauerkraut, cherry tomatoes, grated carrots, radishes, chickpeas,
Instructions
- Make the pickled shallots if using: Place shallot, vinegar, water, salt, sugar in a small pot over high heat. Bring to a simmer for a couple minutes, then set aside and let cool, or refrigerate.
- Make Cashew Basil Dressing. Place olive oil, garlic, lemon, salt in the blender, add the cashews and continue pulsing until smooth. Add the basil. Taste, adjust lemon, adding more if necessary. Set aside, and assemble salads.
- In a large mixing bowl, toss greens, beets and pumpkin seeds lightly with some of the dressing (you won’t need all). Toss in some pickled shallots (or ½ cup sauerkraut), and gently fold in the avocado. Taste for salt, adjusting as necessary.
- Divide among bowls.
- Top the dressed greens with fresh sprouts and more pumpkin seeds if you like.
Notes
Soak 1/3 cup raw cashews in cold water on the counter until softened for 6-12 hours to achieve a creamy texture. Drain. They will swell, and you’ll have 1/2 cup- use all!
TIP: For a quick alternative, simmer cashews in a small pot of water on the stove for 15-20 minutes, rinse with cold water, drain.
Salad serves 2 ( as mains) and dressing serves 6.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 369
- Sugar: 4.2 g
- Sodium: 348.7 mg
- Fat: 33.5 g
- Saturated Fat: 5.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 15.2 g
- Fiber: 7.3 g
- Protein: 8.9 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
This salad makes me feel alive! I love all of the healthy and colorful ingredients and the dressing is out of this world.
Yay Kara! Raw beets are so energizing!
Love this salad, made it multiple times, amazing dressing!
Thanks Ing!
Very tasty the dressing is a real treat. I added dried edible flowers
Fun!
I could eat this for days on end. Savory, garlicky, delicious. So many textures, flavors, and colors make this a wonderful meal.
I could eat this for days on end. Savory, garlicky, crunchy, delicious. So many textures, flavors, and colors make this a wonderful meal.
So happy you liked this one Jill!
We loved the basil cashew dressing and could eat it with a spoon, but I’m thinking it might be best served as a compliment to or sauce alongside a protein. It seemed to have been “lost” on the salad which, in turn, was a bit unremarkable.
We just didn’t think this was up to the 5 star quality of most of your fabulous recipes. We would rate the salad per se as “OK” and worth making to use up those garden beets but nothing that we would make to share.
Appreciate the feedback Mary!
Loved this!
Great to hear!
This salad is so fresh. I have so much basil in the garden, great way to use it up
Lucky you!🌱 Glad you enjoyed!
OK – So I’m confused. Two of the comments below loved the “two” sauces. I don’t see any other liquids aside from the cashew basil dressing. Are they referring to the pickled shallots? What have I missed? I plan to make the dressing to go with our garden lettuce salad tonight – here in Maine we still have a wait before our garden beets are ready for picking, but I’ll be making this once the time arrives!
Hi Mary, I recently updated this recipe, and basically changed it to one dressing. It was overly complicated before. Orginally I had a cashew dressing, and a basil drizzle. But now its combined and WAY better! Sorry for the confusion.
A little time consuming but totally delicious!
Ummm the cashew tahini sauce is missing tahini!
Ok I changed the verbiage- I think it was too confusing for people. 🙂 The Cashew Cream mimics tahini sauce without actually using tahini paste. I think it is more clear now. 🙂
Made this a couple of nights ago and loved it! Especially the cashew dressing. I still have some of both dressings left and have been drizzling them over roasted vegies, baked salmon, whatever I can think of. Had to track down the spiralized beets, but finally found them. Evidentally, everyone loves those things! Thank you for such a tasty and healthy recipe!
Hi, I can’t believe I found this recipe. I went to Ojai yesterday and had this very salad. It was amazing. I asked for the ingredients of the two sauces and I think you have them pretty close. She said that they added nutritional yeast to the cashew dressing and she thought the pesto was made with parsley. I love basil so I will try it this way very soon. Thank you so much for posting and I look forward to more of your recipes. Thanks, Janet
What a coincidence!!!Love it!
Great looking pictures. I’m sitting here writing down my shopping list. Some greens and basil… and then I think if I made extra pesto I could have a pesto and pasta dish. I bet if I made extra tahini dressing I could use it as a marinade for some baked salmon. I’ll have to think a little more for another dish with the pickled shallots. Thanks for the inspiration. A nice salad for tonight and two dishes setup for the week.
Love your planning process!
is the cashew tahini dressing meant to have tahini in it?
Haha I was wondering the same thing ?
So the cashews actually replace sesame paste here – becoming cashew tahini vs. sesame tahini- hopefully that makes sense and sorry for any confusion!