Green beetroot salad

A green beetroot salad?Well, yes, check out this recipe.Quite surprisingly, the fenugreek does not leave any bitter aftertaste, even my kids relished this colourful salad!Considering the amazing benefits of fenugreek, this salad is an all time winner, go ahead,  please do yourself a good turn by trying out this one.I must thank my dear friend who gave me this great recipe.
You need

1. Beet root, tender, small - 2, grated
2. Fenugreek leaves, tender - chopped, 1 cup
3. Onion - 2 medium, chopped fine
4. Tomatoes - 2 chopped fine
5. Hung curd - 2 tbsp
6. Salt - 1/2 tsp or lesser

For seasoning

1. Vegetable oil - 1/2 tsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
3. Curry leaves - 4-5 leaves
4. Hing powder - a small pinch
5. Green chilli - 2, chopped very fine

To assemble

1. Tie up a cupful of homemade skim milk curd in a muslin cloth for about an hour.Use 2 tbsp of the hung curd in this recipe, reserve the rest for later.
2. Choose tender fenugreek leaves.Remove thick stalks from fenugreek leaves, wash thoroughly.Chop up - neither too fine nor too big.
3. Select medium, tender beetroot.Wash well, peel skin away, and grate the beetroot with a fine grater.
4. Take 2 medium sized onions, peel, wash well, and chop up real fine.
5. Similarly wash tomatoes and chop fine.
6. Once chopped,  toss all vegetables together with the salt and hung curd.
7. Heat oil in a small sauce pan, add mustard .When mustard splutters, add the rest of ingredients for seasoning in order.Pour over the tossed salad and give a good mix.
8. Allow flavours to settle by keeping it covered in the fridge for atleast half an hour.
9. Serve with phulkas, or rice.

Notes

• You can use juice of 1 lemon instead of hung curd for the tartness.
• You can substitute green chilli with fresh cracked black pepper, add it along with salt.
• Always select tender fresh vegetables while assembling a salad.
• Consume a salad within an hour of tossing or even earlier.
• Keep a salad covered well in the fridge to avoid loss of freshness and to avoid other odours from seeping in.
• You can omit the beetroot entirely for severe diabetics.Else you can substitute it with fresh carrots.

Now for the nutri notes

• There are numerous studies which show the benefits of fenugreek on lowering blood glucose levels and lowering blood lipid levels.These have been shown in ancient Ayurvedic medicine too.Space here does not permit detailed analysis of such studies, suffice to say that we do have a wonder vegetable at hand.DO consume either seeds or leaves raw on an empty stomach to benefit fully from the hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects of fenugreek.Consuming just 5- 8 gms of seeds per day seem to bring on all the benefits of this wonder plant.
• The leaves also give us good amounts of Vitamin A,and sizable amounts of  vitamin B and C when consumed fresh and raw.
• Among trace elements,while it contains only fair amounts of iron, the leaves pack in good amounts of copper (0.10mg/100gm), zinc (0.36mg/100gm) Due to the presence of copper and zinc,quality of iron absorption is good.Those with iron deficiency anemia, please go all out for this fragrant green!
• It is a low source of sodium (76mg/100gm and potassium (31mg/100gm).Hence it is a welcome food for hypertensive patients.

Here are the visuals

chopped salad veggies

Blended and seasoned salad

Chilled salad with hot phulkas!