I recently had some leftover cooked rice and was in the mood for a dinner salad. Going through the fridge yielded red beets, carrots, and half a jar of olives – and that seemed to fit!
Shredded raw red beets will give any dish a fantastic color, and white rice is a great canvas – the result is an almost neon pink. (The pictures are unaltered!)
Some green baby spinach adds a crunchy splash of health, the carrots enhance the beets’ sweetness, and olives ground the whole dish.
A nice touch for this salad is using black olive oil: it’s rare to find in stores, and I’m so glad our local specialty store Zingerman’s carries it đ
The smell is very different from regular olive oil, no hint of fruity bitterness, much more mellow. Try it!
And if you have a little princess’s birthday party coming up, feel free to skip the spinach for a purely pink side dish đ
Pinkie Pie Salad
Ingredients
- 2 red beets
- 5 or 6 carrots
- 4 cups cooked white rice (cook with 1 tsp salt and 4 cardamom pods)
- 1/2 cup pitted black olives
- 3 cups fresh baby spinach
- 2 TBsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 TBsp black oilve oil, e.g. CastelineS Noir D’Olive
- 1 TBsp apple cider vinegar
Directions
- Rice the beets and carrots (see note here on how to rice, bottom of post).
- Mix oils and acv in serving bowl. Add rice, riced veggies, and olives and stir well to combine. Gently fold in spinach.
- Surprise your kids and enjoy!