Warm Beetroot, Rocket and Shrimp Salad with Pistachio and Orange
A warm lunch with 42.6 g of protein and 3.5 mg of zinc per serving, over beetroot and rocket — two nitrate-bearing vegetables. Macros calculated from USDA data.
Here the surprising figure is not the fat or the sugar: it is the 16.9 g of sugar, almost all of it from the beetroot. That is what cooking a sweet root for its nitrate content looks like. On that base, 42.6 g of shrimp protein and 3.5 mg of zinc make this a full lunch rather than a side. And one methodological warning: the table uses the USDA entry for boiled beetroot, not roasted, so the per-serving figures are a floor, not a ceiling.
Ingredients
7 items- 240 g beetroot, roasted and cut into wedges
- 80 g rocket
- 300 g cooked, peeled shrimp
- 30 g raw pistachios, chopped
- 20 g extra virgin olive oil
- 120 g orange: peeled segments and the juice of the rest
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Nutritional Information (per serving)
Step-by-Step Instructions
Roast the beetroot
Wrapped in baking paper, 35 to 40 minutes at 200 °C, until a knife goes in without resistance. Peel while hot and cut into wedges.
Make the dressing
Whisk the olive oil with the orange juice, salt and pepper.
Build the base
Rocket on the bottom, warm beetroot wedges on top.
Add the protein
Scatter the shrimp over the top and tuck orange segments among the vegetables.
Finish
Drizzle the dressing, then chopped pistachio and freshly ground pepper.
Functional Health Synergy
- 42.6 g of protein per serving, from the shrimp (36 g) and the pistachio
- 3.5 mg of zinc per serving: 2.5 mg from shrimp and 0.3 mg from pistachio
- 129 mg of magnesium and 45 mg of vitamin C per serving
- Dietary nitrate from plants: beetroot and rocket are vegetables with a natural content of inorganic nitrate, a precursor of nitric oxide through the nitrate-nitrite pathway
- Fat mostly monounsaturated, from the olive oil and pistachio
- 16.9 g of sugar per serving, with no added sugar: it comes from the beetroot and the orange
Individual results may vary. Claims regarding weight loss and metabolic improvements depend on each patient's individual physiological response, their nutrition plan, and medical evaluation.
Discover more about this recipe
Beetroot
The root that carries this dish's angle: the reference review places beetroot at 250 to 400 mg of nitrate per 100 g of fresh weight, so 120 g per serving brings roughly 300 to 480 mg, varying with variety and growing conditions. It also explains 9.6 g of sugar per serving. 44 kcal per 100 g once cooked.
Cooked shrimp
24.0 g of protein per 100 g with only 0.3 g of fat and 99 kcal: the cleanest protein in the batch. It also brings 1.6 mg of zinc and 39 mg of magnesium per 100 g. The quantity is weighed cooked and peeled.
Rocket
25 kcal per 100 g, with 47 mg of magnesium, 15 mg of vitamin C and 1.6 g of fibre. Its bitterness cuts the beetroot's sweetness, and it also carries nitrate, though less than the root.
Orange
Sixty grams per serving bring 33.7 mg of vitamin C and 5.4 g of sugar. It goes in as segments and as juice in the dressing: the vitamin C enters raw, never through the oven.