A Delicious Weeknight Liver Detox

When I get home late from work, I really don’t feel like cooking or doing much else except kicking back, maybe some reading, writing, watching TV, and playing Spider or some other mindless game.

So Sunday afternoon has become my food prep and cooking time. I shoot for making three different dishes, and enough to last for three days of lunches/meals for my hubby and me. Last week it was mungbeans & rice with veggies (always a hearty healthy choice!), a big batch of baked tofu, and a beet and carrot casserole. These three things go great together, and on their own are easily dressed up with a chopped salad or other veggie dish.

There are some die hard beet haters in the world, perhaps because like me as a kid, all they ever had was canned beets. I didn’t even know what a beet was! To me it was some dark reddish purplish sliced thing out of a can; the same way spinach was some green slimy thing out of a can…always drizzled with white vinegar, courtesy of my mom. I don’t think I ever saw these wonderful veggies in their natural fresh form until I moved into a yoga ashram in 1971 (but that’s another story). Enough said. I challenge any beet haters out there to give this simple, satisfying, and outstandingly delicious casserole a try. You just may turn into a beet lover. I did!

Beets are one of the most potent liver detox foods you can eat. If you take beet juice, limit it to no more than 2 ounces at a time, mixed with other juice (like celery or carrot). And remember to chew your juice, swishing it around in your mouth; this is so important for your body to fully digest and realize the nutritional/therapeutic benefits. Have you heard that saying, “chew your liquids and drink your solids”? Think about that for a minute.

Besides being good for your liver, eating beets is a great way to see how well your elimination is coming along. Your urine, shortly after eating beets, will be pink. Your stool will be beet red/purple. Because it is so obvious when those beets find their way out, it is easy to tell how “on time” and well-functioning your elimination is. It is most important that what we eat is eliminated within 24 hours.

I pressure cooked 3 whole skins-on nice sized beets for 10 minutes. Then I quick released the steam and added 4-5 scrubbed carrots and pressure cooked a few more minutes. While the beets and carrots were cooking, I heated up a couple tablespoons of ghee, and sauteed some finely chopped ginger and green onions, added some freshly ground black pepper, and my “ginger masala” was ready to go.

Once whole beets are steamed until tender firm, the skins slide off quite easily. I used a hand grater to grate my beets, but if you are making a bigger batch use a food processor. My carrots this day got a little too soft to grate, so I cut them into pieces instead. Grated, sliced, chopped… it’s up to you.

Then it was a simple matter of adding some chopped cilantro and gently mixing them together. I say “gently,” because I love the colors to remain distinguishable and bright (if grating both the carrots and beets, remember to mix sparingly).

Add a little bit of salt or lemon juice to taste, and you can eat this up right now. So delicious! But I do enjoy beets and carrots with just a little cheese melted on top. I used a mild organic Jack, and it was perfect.

Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes or so, until the cheese is bubbly (or just put under the broiler until bubbly and golden), Garnish with a little more chopped cilantro or parsley and presto!

Complete Recipe for Beet and Carrot Casserole with Ginger Masala

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