Spiced Roasted Butternut and Beet Salad Bowl | Vegan, Gluten-Free

Are you ready for another simple and delicious big salad bowl? This Spiced roasted butternut and beet salad bowl is so good!

There’s been some sad development in the news recently with the approval of 2 varieties of GMO apples and 6 varieties of GMO potatoes, to go in supermarkets’ shelves shortly in Canada and the U.S., and a lot of debates going on social media like Facebook. It really gets draining and exhausting to have to argue all the time, trying to help people educate themselves, so that they can make informed decisions, and even more sad that so many farmers are dedicated GMO advocates. Not only does Monsanto (and others) profit off of them but they somehow voluntarily defend them. What a great deal for GMO makers! As you may or may not know, I have been eating organic for 14 years now, I have done a lot of research and continually read the latest information on the subject, studies from both sides, I keep myself well informed and educated, and I choose to eat real food. Plain and simple. I don’t want synthetic pesticides/herbicides/insecticides on my food, and I don’t want to eat anything that has had its DNA forcefully tinkered with. I like discussions and sharing information, and thinking on the subject, but more often then not, it ends up being an argument. I wonder if people do change their minds once they’ve made their opinion (or if they are too involved with corporations)? Is it possible? There are still so many people out there who don’t know what GMOs are!

If you believe in evolution, then you should believe that we have evolved to process food properly as well, and that food has evolved to give us proper nutrition (not the junk food that humans have created), and if you believe in God, you should believe that what He created is what we need. Either way, nature provides us with what we need, it has done so for millennials.

Without going into all the details, one point that I keep thinking about is this: Food that is genetically modified does not contain any DNA sequence that exist anywhere in the world, it is an alien substance. How are our bodies supposed to process/digest something that does not exist in nature? When our bodies try to deal with something they don’t know what to do with, the result is usually disease and cancers, so that doesn’t sound too good. Instead of trying to prove that that GMOs are dangerous, why not ask those corporations to prove without a doubt that their products are safe in the long run? Because those are two different things. We seem to accept new products because we think they’ve been proven safe, but more often then not, they are on the market until too many people get sick or die from it, and then, they might be removed from the market. But why do we always need to wait until so much sadness happens before reacting? Many pro-GMOs say “…but the science says…”. And even though the science also says that GMOs are dangerous and not examined enough, I also say that I don’t want my food to be a science experiment. I don’t want to be a lab rat. In fact, I don’t even want rats to be lab rats. No one should suffer for food.

Not to mention, what is so wrong with simply wanting to eat real food? Why do we have to add synthetic chemicals in everything?

Ok, my little rant is over… haha

On to today’s recipe!

Some of you lucky people in the south have started gardening already, but for us folks higher up north, we still have snow and are about 2 months away from starting to plant anything outside, so we still have to make the most of our local organic winter vegetables, and this bowl is really great for that, very tasty and satisfying. It takes about 30 minutes for everything to be ready, which is always nice on weekdays. Feel free, as always, to change and adapt this recipe with what you have in the fridge! 🙂

Bon appétit!

ECP xo

For the salad dressing, click on this link: Old Fashioned Mustard Dressing.

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Spiced Roasted Butternut and Beet Salad Bowl | Vegan, Gluten-Free

Course: Salad

Cuisine: European

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 2 servings

Delicious and nutritious meal ready in about 20 minutes!

Ingredients

• 1/2 organic lettuce 1/2 of a big head (I used romaine, but any lettuce will do)
• 1/2 small butternut squash washed, cut into wedges
• 3 small beets yellow and red, peeled, cut into chunks
• 2 carrots washed, cut into chunks
• 1/4 organic English cucumber washed, cut into strips or cubes
• 1 watermelon radish peeled, sliced
• 398 ml organic chickpeas (1 regular size can) drained and rinsed
• 4 leaves organic Swiss chard including stems, washed, cut into thin slices
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 2 Tbsp marinated red onion (optional)
• 1/4 cup naturally fermented organic sauerkraut (mine has kimchi spices)
• 2 Tbsp hazelnuts
• 2 Tbsp sunflower seeds
• 2 Tbsp pumpkin seeds
• extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp paprika powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/8 tsp ground cayenne
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/8 tsp ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Prepare the salad dressing first (see link in article).
2. Turn oven on to 400F.
3. Put the wedges of butternut squash and chunks of beets and carrots in a large mixing bowl. Drizzle with 2 Tbsp of olive oil, then add all the spices, mix really well, and put on a single layer on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 400F for about 15-20 minutes (depending on the size of your veggie chunks).
4. While that cooks, prepare the lettuce, cucumber, and watermelon radish. Distribute in plates. Wash and cut the Swiss chard and garlic.
5. Warm a medium size pan on medium heat. Add a drizzle of olive oil. Add the Swiss chard and sauté for about 5 minutes, or until they start to roast a bit, then add the rinsed chickpeas and minced garlic, and continue sauté for another 5 minutes or so. Add a splash of freshly squeezed lemon juice at the end to scrape off any bits from the bottom.
6. When everything is cooked, simply add to the plates the cooked butternut, beets, carrots, chickpea mixture. Add some marinated red onion and sauerkraut in the middle, along with the hazelnuts and seeds. Drizzle everything with the dressing, and enjoy right away!

Note: I do not believe anyone should worry about counting calories, but here is the nutritional information for one serving
Calories: 570kcal | Fat: 21g | Saturated fat: 2g | Sodium: 1349mg | Potassium: 2402mg | Carbohydrates: 83g | Fiber: 24g | Sugar: 20g | Protein: 24g | Vitamin A: 37045% | Vitamin C: 96.4% | Calcium: 306% | Iron: 9.4%