BALSAMIC GINGER BEET NOODLE BOWL WITH AVOCADO, BLOOD ORANGE & EDAMAME
About a year ago my mother was diagnoised with high blood pressure. SCARY. It was a cause for concern for everyone in the family because according to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and
Prevention), high blood pressure can be the primary cause if not a contributing factor to more than 1,000 American deaths EVERY DAY! It increases the risk for more lethal health conditions like heart attack, stroke and chronic heart failure. Although several members of my family work in health care as nurses, it was important to my mom that she give it everything she had to lower it through diet and lifestyle before resorting to perscription drugs. Of course, I wanted to be as supportive as possible.
After doing research online we discovered that beets and beetroot juice could help. Having high levels of dietary nitrate (NO3) that the body converts into active nitrite (NO2) and nitric oxide (NO) that help relaxe and dilate blood vessels easing blood pressure. Leafy greens and cabbage also contain high concentrations of the nutrient that it absorbs from the soil, but you will want to buy organic here if possible to recieve the most benefit. Upon learning this everything beet I saw a bought for her and was constantly coming up with ways to encorperate them into our meals such that this recipe was born. Additionaly eliminting salt from her diet was hugely important so this recipe does not have any salt but feel free to add your own if you prefer.
After about 6-8 months of following a very a high plant based diet, no salt, and some animal protien my moms blood pressure is back to where it was when she was in her 30's. All achieved naturally through diet and without the use of perscription drugs. It again reaffirms my supprt of diet being the biggest indicator of peoples longevity and health (or chronic illness) while on this planet. In the effort of not misleading any one its important to mention that we also tooks major steps to reduce the amount of stress in her life as well. As a buisness owner, boss, and mother of three she is no stranger to stress so she also made an effort to regularly (and consistently) work out, take a lot of deep breathes and took some leadership courses to refine her skills as a leader so she could better handle the challenges of her job. She does afterall have the US Navy as a client. Big stuff (if you cant tell im pretty proud of her).
This bowl is really flavorful, super fun to eat and beautiful. All you need is a Spiralizer to make the noodles, which can be found online affordably. You will get a lot of use out of this, I promise. I use it to make sweet potato noodles, zuchinni noodles, and carrot noodles. It's seriously the best.
Without further Ado here is the recipe:
Ingredients
1 large round beet
1/2 avocado, sliced
1 Cup edamame, shelled GMO free
1 1/2 Cup arugula
1 small blood orange
1/4 Cup balsamic
1/4 Cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 Teaspoon fresh grated ginger
1 Tablespoon alfalfa sprouts
black pepper (to taste, optional)
hemp seeds to taste
Instructions
Peel your beet and slice of the ends so that you are left with a flat side on each end. Using your Spiralizer turn your beet into noodles. Place in a large bowl with the balsamic, olive oil, ginger, and black pepper to taste. Toss to coat and let marainate while you prep your other ingredients.
Slice blood orange in half, juice half of it and mix with the arugula in a small bowl. Slice the other half into small slices to garnish your bowl with.
Rinse and drain edamame, peel and slice your avocado. Divide your beet noodles and arugula betweeen two bowls. Add edamame, avocado, blood orange slices, alfalfa sprouts and heml seeds if using.