Easy Beet and Carrot Salad (Raw Root Vegetable Salad)
This easy beet and carrot salad is crunchy, zesty, quick, healthy, and simple to prepare, with minimal prep time and tons of versatility! Enjoy raw, roasted, and with all sorts of mix-ins and adaptions! Naturally vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free, and full of antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and detoxing power.
Wash all your vegetables thoroughly. I like to use a scrubber to remove any dirt/sand.
Peel and finely chop all the vegetables. I like to thinly slice the vegetables first, then chop those down into tiny pieces. At the same time, finely chop any herbs you're using.Alternatively, use a food chopper or shred/julienne them instead, with a vegetable peeler, mandoline, or food processor with grating disks.
Once chopped, transfer the radish, beet, and carrot mixture to a serving bowl.
Prepare the simple vinaigrette by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl and whisking well.Save on washing up by adding the ingredients directly to the salad bowl!
Gently toss all the salad ingredients together to make sure it's well mixed and coated with the dressing, then enjoy immediately or allow the flavors to meld for 20-30 minutes first.
How Make Ahead and Store?
Make ahead: You can prepare the entire salad and store the chopped vegetables and dressing separately for 1-2 days before combining and serving (possibly more, though I’ve never tried). This salad tastes even better after it’s allowed to marinate, though, so feel free to add the dressing a few hours in advance.Store: Once assembled, store the raw root vegetable salad in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.The salt will draw out excess liquid in the veggies, making more of a dressing and tenderizing the veggies as they sit. More so, the colors of the beet will bleed and turn other ingredients pink over time.Though I haven’t tried, I imagine that freezing the carrot beet salad (without the dressing) is also possible for up to 6 months, if not more.
Notes
For the quickest prep: if you have a food chopper, mandoline, or food processor with shredding disks, then now is the time to use it! These tools can cut down the prep time of this salad to just a few minutes!
Experiment with texture: you can serve this as a shaved, shredded/matchstick, or chopped salad.
Wear gloves: if you want to avoid staining, I highly recommend wearing kitchen gloves when dealing with beets (to avoid pink/red skin!).
Can you eat raw beets? Absolutely. In fact, they’re often added to salads. However, if you’d prefer to use pre-roasted, steamed, or par-cooked/blanched beets, then do so.
Can I roast all the vegetables? While I prefer to enjoy this salad raw, adjust it to a roasted root vegetable salad if you prefer the taste and texture. Chop the veggies into similar-sized pieces and roast at 400ºF/200ºC until tender (exact time will depend on the size of pieces. Check at 20 minutes for small bite-sized pieces).
Do you need to peel the beets? Technically no, as long as they’re thoroughly washed. However, I find the skin can be tough when raw, so I usually do.
Check the blog post for more ingredient notes, add-ins, and substitutions!