By Taylor KiserMay 9, 2016Jump to Recipe

This salad is made with turnip and beet noodles, fresh pesto and topped with fried eggs. It’s a whole 30 and paleo friendly recipe that’s perfect for spring and under 300 calories!

Is there really much in life that does not get infinitely better by putting an egg on top of it?

I’m pretty sure it even has its own hashtag: #putaneggonit. <– ONLY SEARCH THAT IF YOU WANT TO GET REALLY SUPER HUNGRY RIGHT NOW.

Just like the knowledge that relationships are only official if they’re on Facebook, you KNOW that the magically-delicious thing that happens when you put a creamy, drippy runny yolk on top of ANY FOOD of life is official when it has a hashtag.

Guys. I’m not really sure if I should tell you this is a salad, or if we should call it made-of-veggies pasta, or WHAT. But, there’s greens. IE: salad. IE: we’re calling this a beet salad that combines with veggie noodles and fresh DILL pesto in a way that is making my mouth really happy about all thing “life” and FOOD.

The flavor profile of this beet salad (fresh dill meets toasty pine nuts meets earthy beets meets rich egg) hits just about every note of pure yumminess that I could ever ask something so nutritious and made of SO MANY ground-dwelling-good-for-you-foods to hit. Yes, even WITH beets. I know some people have VERY strong feelings about the bright purple veggie that makes your cutting board look like you just murdered someone. You either <3 them or HATE them. Even you beet-haters are going to be tangling your fork all up in the spirals of tender-crisp earthy noodle beet salad tastiness.

In other news: as much as I want to munch this turnip noodle pesto pasta salad and talk about how the creamy, herby pesto (extra heavy on the herby-ness please!) mixes and mingles with zesty bites of leeks and tangy lemon, I need to dig into my real-life-gotta-be-honest self for a second and tell you why I’m sort of mad at it.

Do you ever envision how something is going to go down in your (very vivid) imagination and you have Z-E-R-O qualms that the outcome of such imagined event could stray from your mental picture?

AND THEN IT DOESN’T LOOK AT ALL LIKE YOU PLANNED IT TO.

My life. SRSLY. Always happens.

I had this image of how the white turnip noodles would look twirled up with the vibrant, deep-purple beet noodles and how all the color-contrasting prettiness would just be POPPIN’ in the photos AND the flavor would be doin’ the same up in the general area of my taste buds.

The latter? It happened. I mean, there’s pesto and eggs involved. Remember the zucchini noodles with everything pesto and fried eggs? The probability of this is-it-breakfast-is-it-dinner-salad-creation not tasting like food-wizardry on your tongue was VERYVERY low.

But then. *suspenseful pause.* The beets did this annoying thing where they rubbed their jewel-toned selves all over the white turnip noodles and made them ALL one color.

COLORFUL FOOD GOALS: 0. EVIL BEETS: 1

But, whatever. I’m over it. Sort of. Ok, I’m not.

You need to stop knowing me SO WELL.

So, “beet salad important notes” reads something like this

Don’t expect multi-colored nourishing food.
DO except nourishing food that is supremely YUM.
Don’t be alarmed that you’re eating a bowl of pink.

Eating your greens is so 2015.

Recipe

Spiralized Beet Salad with Turnips, Pesto and Fried Eggs

4 from 1 vote

Serves:

Prep: 20

Cook: 10

Total: 30

Ingredients

For the salad:

1 Tbsp Olive oil
1 Cup Leeks sliced
1 Tbsp Fresh garlic minced
2 Large turnips peeled and spiralized with the 3mm blade
1 Large beet peeled and spiralized with the 3mm blade
2 Cups Spinach roughly chopped

For the pesto:

1/4 Cup Pine nuts + additional for garnish
1 1/2 Cups Fresh Basil roughly chopped and firmly packed
1/2 Cup Fresh Dill lightly packed
1/4 Cup Leeks sliced
1 tsp Fresh garlic minced
1/4 tsp Sea salt or to taste
Pinch of pepper
Zest of 1 small lemon
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
3-4 Large eggs

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and place the pine nuts on a small baking sheet. Bake until golden brown and toasted, about 4-6 minutes. Set aside.
Heat 1 Tbsp (from the salad ingredients) of olive oil up in a LARGE skillet on medium heat. Add in the sliced leeks and garlic. Cook until fragrant and lightly browned, about 3-4 minutes.
Add in the spiralized turnips and beets and toss to evenly coat in the oil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the noodles begin to wilt, about 5-6 minutes.
Once wilted, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the spinach. Cover to keep warm.
Place the toasted pine nuts into a small food processor (mine is 3 cups) and pulse until broken down and crumbly.
Add in the basil, dill, leeks, garlic, salt, pepper and lemon zest. You might need to really press it in. Pulse, scraping the sides down as necessary, until all the herbs are broken down.
With the processor running, stream in the olive oil and pulse until the pesto is smooth and creamy. Again, scrape the sides of the bowl down as necessary.
Lightly rub a medium skillet with olive oil and heat over medium heat. Fry the eggs until they are cooked to your liking, seasoning with a pinch of salt and pepper.
Transfer the noodles to a large bowl and toss in the pesto. It's easier to get the noodles evenly coated if you cut them up a little bit, so they are not so long. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
Divide the noodles between plated, topping with 1 egg and a sprinkle of pine nuts, if desired.
DEVOUR.