Avocado Beet Pea Shoot Salad. Super Simple Recipe.

Super simple salad recipe. Sensational flavors! This salad combines sweet baby beets, ripe tender avocados, zesty lemon juice and the trendy spring ingredient green pea shoots (Jean Georges uses pea shoots at his NYC restaurant Jean Georges – see chef trends). Click ahead to find out what a pea shoot is, and get my simple recipe…

What are Pea Shoots? Pea Shoots are the leaves of the garden pea plant. They are high in Vitamin C, A and folic acid. They are light, crispy and slightly zesty. Similar to sprouts and as versitile as parsley. Pea shoots have a firm crispy stalk that crunches into a sweet hydrating bite.

Beets are fabulous root veggies. They are incredibly sweet yet low in calories. Read more about beet health facts here.

Beet red love. I fell in love with this simple recipe. I use those cute packaged, pre-cooked baby beets. Super simple. But you can also use two large beets and cook or roast them yourself. But I find that for a raw salad the baby beets are perfect. You can buy baby beets at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s and many specialty food stores. In the refrigerated section.

Simple Avocado Beet Salad
vegan, serves two

1 avocado, sliced long.
6 baby roasted beets or 2 large beets
1 lemon juiced
1 cup fresh pea shoots, roughly chopped
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
*You may substitute lemon juice with balsamic or red wine vinegar.

To make:
Slice baby beets about 1/4 inch thick.
Slice avocados to about the same thickness.
Slice a few in half-keep a few long.
Drizzle 1 Tbsp lemon juice on avocado.
Set beets and avocado aside.
Rough chop pea shoots. Set the sprouted (leafed) ends aside.
Place the hard stalk ends in a small bowl.
Add the olive oil, lemon juice or vinegar, salt and pepper to the stalk pea shoots bowl. Mix well.
Place a few of the marinated stalks on serving plates.
Arrange avocado and beet slices on top of stalks on plates.
Rotate beet, avocado, beet, avocado.
Add all the remaining pea shoots-stuff them into crevices on the plate to keep it tight and pretty.
Drizzle the leftover oil-acid mixture over the salads.
Optional: drizzle a bit more olive oil or lemon juice or vinegar over beets.
Fresh grind black pepper is a nice salad topper.

Such a refreshing salad appetizer. Looks very bright and pretty. And as I always say, salad first!