Antioxidant Salad

Phew! Between moving, deadlines at work and my sister-in-law's bachelorette party I haven't had a minute to breathe! However, breathing or not, I have still made time to eat healthy.

Here is a quick and simple salad I came up with to eat as a snack/meal four, at my desk. It includes two of my favorite antioxidants, as well as my favorite condiment:) If you follow my blog you've read about the amazing healthy properties of beets. But if you're wondering why I'm recommending something as fatty as avocado you'll be happy to know that avocados contain "good" fat and are essential to our diet!

Good fats are mono-unsaturated fat (olive oil, canola oil, seeds, nuts and avocado) and poly-unsaturated fat (fish, walnuts, seeds, flax seed/oil). One "bad" fat is saturated fat (animal products like red meat and whole milk dairy products, some vegetable oils.) Saturated fat increases our chances of heart disease and increases "bad" cholesterol levels while lowering good cholesterol levels.) Another "bad" fat is transfat (fast food, vegetable shortening, margarine, cookies, candy, fried foods). There is no need to consume saturated or transfat as long as we're getting enough mono and poly-unsaturated fat in our diets.

You're welcome to use fresh beets but, to save time, I used roasted beets from Trader Joes. 

Ingredients

4 medium beets (about 1/2 pound each), scrubbed

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground white pepper 

1/3 cup finely chopped white onion 

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar 

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (I used yellow because I'm not that fancy)

1 teaspoon honey 

1/2 cup grapeseed oil or other mild vegetable oil 

2 avocados, cut into 3/4-inch pieces 

Directions:

In a blender, combine the chopped onion with the red wine vinegar, lemon juice, mustard and honey. Season with salt and white pepper and blend until smooth. With the machine on, add the grapeseed oil and the 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a steady stream.

 Add the avocado to the roasted beets. Pour the onion dressing on top and toss gently to combine. Season the salad with salt and pepper and serve.