According to scientifically substantiated nutrition rules, each of us must contain, to a certain extent, various types of vegetables in raw and boiled, heat-treated and salted forms. According to some researchers, this segment of food can reach a third or even half of the total diet. It is annoying that rarely in the modern world adheres to such attitudes. Unless people seriously engaged in their health or sitting on strict vegetable diets. How to find a way out of the existing situation and shift your diet towards the consumption of vegetables?
As easy as pie
Salad from beets and pickles is just one of those dishes, due to the preparation and consumption of which you can quickly catch up. It prepares simply and quickly. It can be used as a daily dish. And also, which is characteristic, it has a lot of variations on the topic. So, each attentive housewife will be able to express her own imagination and build her own signature salad of beets and pickles to please both herself and the guests who came. Moreover, this dish is also dietary, and recommended for use during fasting (in strict - without oil). So in many ways you will be right if you start to cook it almost daily until you get bored. And bother, believe me, not soon (see the variations on the theme of the dish described below).
A bit about the benefits of ingredients
The salad has two main components: beets and cucumber. And if cucumbers are mostly used pickled or pickled (but not pickled, without the addition of vinegar), then beets can be cooked, and baked, and raw. The taste of the final product of your culinary fantasies, respectively, will also differ in this dependence. You can try this way and that - how it will be tastier and more convenient for you this time.
Beet
But as for beets, no one doubts its benefit. True, some doctors are diligently trying sometimes to spoil the reputation: they say that crude is harmful to people suffering from gastric diseases. But boiled or baked - this is certainly beyond any suspicion. Of the features of the product, it should be noted that beets contain useful elements that do not lose their properties during heat treatment. It also has a unique composition of trace elements and vitamins. Calorie content - 40 kcal / 100 grams. Ingredients: proteins - 1.5 g, fats - 0.1 g, carbohydrates - 8.8 g. A lot of fiber is contained, a kind of brush that cleanses the body from the inside. There is a whole sea of beneficial amino acids in beets. And the magnesium contained therein has a healing effect on blood vessels and the heart. But you have to be careful with the portions. It should be remembered that beets also have a mild diuretic and laxative effect.
Pickles
Pickled cucumbers with beets, the correct proportions introduced into the dish, enhance the antibacterial and vitaminized effect. Everyone knows that cucumbers (especially home, cask salting) are extremely useful to use, especially in winter. The use of such fermentation products, according to some scientists, contributes to the "acidification" of the body and resists the formation of malignant cancer cells.
Seeds and nuts, vegetable oil
All these additional ingredients introduced into the base salad are designed to improve the taste and enhance the nutritional value of the dish. It is important to remember the rules for product compatibility. In a salad of beets and pickles, peeled and chopped walnuts, sunflower seeds and pumpkins usually go well. You can add almost any fried or raw nuts in small quantities. All this stuff is seasoned with lean sunflower or olive oil (some use other types, for example, corn). Immediately make a reservation that in strict fasting, when it is forbidden to use oil, you can squeeze a drop of lemon juice into a salad or drop a pickle from cucumbers (but then you need to salt less).
Boiled beets with pickles for salad
Well, everything is clear with cucumbers. It is necessary to take not sour, without vinegar, not pickled, barrel. Yes, and to crunch lightly - then the most relish! Cucumbers need to be cut into cubes (some prefer to rub on a coarse grater, but then be prepared for the fact that your salad turns into slurry). But as for the root crop, the most common option in a salad of beets and pickles is cooked. It is best to cook beets in a separate pot. It is necessary to wash, but many do not recommend cleaning: this is how the beneficial substances found in the root crop are better preserved and less digested. Even the tails are not cut. Cook over low heat until cooked (should easily fit on a fork). Then we drain the water and cool to room temperature. Next, peel and cut or three on a large grater - as you like.
Salad "Beets with pickled cucumber." Final stage
The finale of preparing a simple and affordable dish is short and concise. Introduce cucumbers into beets. Mix. Add nuts or seeds as desired. Fill with vegetable oil (or do not fill, but then you need to drip lemon juice or pickle). Let us brew at the bottom of the refrigerator. We eat with pleasure. Yes, as far as the proportions of the ingredients, experienced housewives prefer to act by eye. But just in case: several medium root vegetables, several medium-sized pickled cucumbers, half a glass of peeled walnuts and a spoonful of vegetable oil.