If there’s one thing that is 100% my comfort food, it is a salad.
When I am feeling awful for whatever reason, a good salad always makes me feel better.
I love this recipe because, for the most part, it utilizes the whole plant – everything from the greens in the pesto to the traditional vegetable in the salad.
The dressing by itself is very acidic, so it really needs the pesto to balance it.
There is a local purveyor of weld-foraged foods who supplied the lemongrass syrup for this recipe, and ingredients for many of my other recipes (Sonoran Scavengers). If you don’t have lemongrass syrup at your disposal, substitute 1T honey and the juice of 1 more lemon (2T).
You don’t HAVE to cook your beets beforehand. Though, note that raw beets are slightly bitter, so if you are not a fan of bitter foods, I recommend that you peel, chop, and roast the beets in the oven at 350 until they are tender, and cool completely before adding to the salad.
This is such a fun recipe because it is herby, earthy, bright, and light all at the same time. It’s so much fun to eat! I love that the pesto uses both the carrot tops and the beet greens, so that none of the plant is wasted. And, bonus, it’s not super hard to make either.
Carrot, Beet, and Kohlrabi Salad with Carrot Top/Beet Green Pesto and Lemon Vinaigrette
Ingredients
For the Salad
- 5 carrots diced
- 3 beets roasted and diced
- 1 head kohlrabi peeled and diced
- 1 bag spring mixed
For the Vinaigrette
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/2 lemon zest and juice
- 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup lemongrass syrup or 2T lemon juice + 1T honey
- chili flakes to taste
- salt to taste
For the Pesto
- 1 bunch carrot tops roughly chopped
- 1 bunch beet greens roughly chopped
- 2/3 cup pine nuts
- 1/3-2/3 c olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic
- lemon juice to taste
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Mix salad ingredients together. Set aside.
- Place vinaigrette ingredients into a bowl and whisk until combined. Add chile flakes and salt to taste.
- Mix carrot tops, pine nuts, and garlic in food processor until chopped.
- Add olive oil gradually (while food processor is on) until a paste forms.
- Add lemon juice and salt to taste.
- Dress salad with both lemon vinaigrette and pesto. Serve immediately.
