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Beetroot and broccoli salad with colourful figs and butter beans served with a delicious harissa garlic bread on the side? That's yes from us! To be honest, anything with harissa garlic bread is yes from Flavourise.
A warm beetroot and broccoli salad
When the weather gets warmer and winter has long gone, a fickle appetite no longer yearns for hearty and filling foods, it starts to crave more quenching meals. Our ideal candidate for this seasonal conundrum is to serve up a satisfying warm beetroot and broccoli salad. Following a simple formula whereby you choose fruit and vegetables with differing antioxidant potencies to create some superb seasonal salads. Not only will you feel satisfied with the variety of ingredients, textures and flavours, but these fabulous dishes are also full of nutrients, fibre and protein which is exactly what our body needs.
A beetroot and broccoli salad with Middle Eastern flavours and spices
With this easy, warm vegan beetroot and broccoli salad, we’ve taken inspiration from the fragrant flavours of Middle-Eastern and North African cuisine to jazz up some everyday pulses, fruits and vegetables. In addition to the flavours introduced to this recipe, simply following this formula you can see how easy it is to change these everyday fruits and vegetables to take on a very different dimension when other classic herbs and spice combinations are added, and we’ve put in a few ideas for you to try.
Your 5 a day
What we are doing is following a simple format using the ORAC score of fruit and vegetables which is the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity score. Each vegetable is graded on its antioxidant potency (see further below), the phrase “your 5 a day” came about following this format of how you can increase your daily fruit and vegetable intake.
The average person should be aiming for at least 7000 ORAC units per day but optimally a lot higher at 20,000 ORAC units per day. Looking at a chart of produce and their scores simply follow the system that will allow you to optimise your daily antioxidant intake by creating a warm salad with a diversity of ingredients that span the chart. The important part of this formula is to aim for the optimal score and not to end up with an extremely high score with a bizarre mix of ingredients. The formula if roughly followed will see you taking an ingredient with a high ORAC score. In this beetroot and broccoli salad, we have opted for butterbeans.
Then use a couple of ingredients with medium ORAC scores. Here we have introduced some beautiful flavours and textures of artichokes and figs. The bulk of your salad will most likely come from down towards the bottom of the chart. These tend to be more everyday items, we’ve used broccoli and beetroot and to give a fragrant North African flavour and a vivid colour. For the dressing, we’ve used dates (along with other important ingredients that give your salad an identity). The reason that you should aim to balance your food intake to cover the ORAC scores from high to low is to incorporate as many vegetables as possible. Even though fruit tends to be higher on the ORAC score, your body needs other important nutrients, vitamins, minerals and fibre which tend to be more concentrated in vegetables as they contain less water and sugars.
A powerhouse of antioxidants
As we said earlier once you have selected your salad ingredients spanning the chart you can now start to add the flavours to add a specific dimension to the dish. As this salad has Middle-Eastern and North African influences we have opted for beautifully aromatic spices in the form of sumac, ras el hanout and turmeric to flavour the butterbeans. This trilogy of ingredients is in itself a powerhouse of anti-inflammatory ingredients. Turmeric, which contains a highly anti-inflammatory antioxidant called curcumin that research has shown actually merges into the body’s cells helping them to stabilise and aid the cell’s ability to stave off infection making them more resistant to inflammation and mutation. In Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine this has been used to cure ailments for thousands of years. The tangy dried red berry sumac has a rich content of polyphenols and flavonoids which add to this powerhouse of antioxidants too and should be a staple in any spice cabinet.
To follow this formula but end up with a different identity such as Chinese for example, you could add cinnamon, star anise and chilli and soy. To make this salad with a Mediterranean twist, you could flavour it with herbs like sage, basil and oregano. As we said, once you know the formula making a healthy warm salad is a doddle.
Cooking the beetroot, broccoli and figs are also very simple steps and easily interchangeable with other similar ingredients, cauliflower and carrots for example are just as simple to cook and add flavour too. These are the lower scoring vegetables on the ORAC score but they have massive other benefits for the body such as containing anthocyanins, carotenoids and flavonoids which amongst other actions work by turning off genes involved in mutation, all very important extras for your health.
That is the body for the salad and the key flavours but a salad is not a salad without a dressing.
Beetroot and broccoli salad with date mayo dressing
For this beetroot and broccoli salad, we have created a wonderful flavoursome dressing in the form of a vegan/plant-based date mayonnaise. This is a strong fruity dressing that works just as well as a dip but tossed through a salad really introduces a sweet and zingy additional dimension. Medjool dates are blended with olive oil and red wine vinegar and lime to make a thick unctuous mayo that contains great antioxidants such as quercetin, fistin, isoquercetin, astragalin, gallic acid and methyl gallate that can potentially protect the body against chronic illnesses. This is definitely a dressing that you may be asking to be served on the side of more than just this beetroot and broccoli salad.
Instead of dates try using blueberries for example or if you want an Asian feel use mangoes or pineapple. Look down the chart below for more inspiration.
It is always nice to have some bread on the side when serving Middle Eastern food. So, why not try some simple flatbreads or in this case, we have made a simple garlic bread flavoured with spicy harissa to add a little heat and crunch. Very moreish.
ORAC scoring fruit and vegetables per 100g
Acai pulp/ powder 161,400
Dark chocolate 103,971
Goji berries 25,300
Pecan nuts 17,940
Red kidney beans 14,413
Walnuts 13,541
Pinto beans 12,359
Pomegranate 10,500
Red lentils 9,766
Hazelnuts 9,645
Cranberries 9,456
Blueberries 9,260
Prunes 8,578
Black beans 8,040
Pistachios 7,983
Black plums 7,339
Globe artichoke 6,552
Red plums 6,239
Blackberries 5,348
Almonds 4,454
Red apples 4,275
Garden peas 4,039
Chickpeas 4,030
Dates 3,895
Strawberries 3,577
Figs 3,383
Cherries 3,361
Peanuts 3,166
Red cabbage 3,146
Raisins 3,037
Gala apple 2,828
Beetroot 2,774
Golden delicious apple 2,670
Spinach 2,640
Aubergine/ Eggplant 2,533
Lemons/ limes 2,412
Avocado 1,933
Pears 1,911
Oranges 1,814
Peaches 1,863
Red leaf lettuce 1,785
Macadamias 1,695
Tangerines 1,620
Russet potatoes 1,555
Grapefruit 1,548
Green cabbage 1,359
Red grapes 1,260
Broccoli 1,259
Onions 1,220
Carrots 1,215
Green grapes 1,118
Mangoes 1,002
Kiwi 918
Cauliflower 647
Iceberg lettuce 451
Tomatoes 337
Watermelon 142
Cucumber 115
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Beetroot and broccoli salad with figs and date mayo dressing recipe
Ingredients
For the beetroot and broccoli salad
- 200 g or 2 cups of broccoli florets
- 200 g or 2 cups of chopped cooked beetroot
- 240 g or 1 tin of butterbeans
- 64 g or ½ cup of marinated artichokes
- 2 quartered fresh figs
- 1 teaspoon of Ras el Hanout
- 1 teaspoon of turmeric
- A handful of mint and coriander leaves and pomegranate seeds to garnish
For the date mayonnaise dressing
- ¼ cup of medjool dates
- 1 clove of garlic
- The juice of 1 lime
- 4 tablespoon of olive oil
- 1 teaspoon of sumac
For the harissa garlic bread
- 2 slices of baguette or sourdough
- 1 tablespoon of good quality extra virgin olive oil
- A dash of sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon of harissa paste
- 1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon of mixed herbs
Instructions
- Parboil the broccoli for 3 minutes, drain and set aside.
- Put the broccoli, beetroot, fig and artichoke in a roasting tray and put in a 200°C (392°F) oven for 20 minutes.
- Add some olive oil to a pan on a high heat and add the turmeric and Ras el Hanout and stir. Add the butter beans and stir-fry for 2- 3 minutes.
- Toss the ingredients together and garnish with the mint and coriander/cilantro and pomegranate seeds.
For the date mayonnaise
- Simply combine all the ingredients in a jug and mix with a hand blender until smooth.
For the harissa garlic bread
- Mix together the oils, harissa paste, garlic and herbs and brush onto the slices of baguette or sourdough. Roast in the oven at 200°C (392°F) for 7-8 minutes until crispy and browned.
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