Did you guys try the rutabaga salad? Like it? I was happy to be invited to join Yahoo's Shine Super Club with the recipe - their idea to collect and share fresh and healthy winter recipes for a new clean start of the year is really great! Now, are you ready to keep this healthy practice of daily juicing and replacing one meal with a salad? Great! Because this is the shortest way to a leaner and much healthier you! And such a simple way as well! My two suggestions today are based on red-beetroots. Why beetroot? Because it is one of the most nutritious and delicious root vegetables that you may find on the market in winter. Beetroots have a cleansing effect both on the liver and the lymphatic system, and they support the body's detoxification process by hooking-up, neutralizing and excreting toxic substances. These brightly pigmented roots might stain your kitchen but they will tone your blood and help build red blood cells. Beet is especially recommended for people suffering from anemia or low levels of hemoglobin (HgB). To fully assimilate the iron in the beet though - eat it raw and do not mix it with diary! A great idea is to have your beet in a fresh juice. This glass contains 2 carrots, 1 red-beet, a bunch of parsley and half squeezed lemon. It is such a bright and vitalizing start of the day! Once you have has your morning juice you may have a healthy mid-morning snack (a handful of nuts, a bowl of yoghurt, a wholebread sandwich with tofu and sprouts), and then enjoy a big, nice, detox salad for lunch. This one is really satisfying because both the beetroot and the broccoli contain lots of fiber to keep you full. The raw cashew sauce dressing on the top is such a lovely condiment - it makes the hard veggies easily chewable, boosts the nutritious profile of the salad and proves once again the fact that healthy food is far away from being bleak and tasteless. The sauce is light with a velvety texture, a perfect substitute to any commercial mayonnaise-based dressing and can be used not only for salads but also with warps, patties, etc. And before moving to the salad's recipe, let me just warn you something - when you eat red-beet, the betalain pigments in the root might slightly taint your urine and excrement in red. This is normal and nothing to be worried about. Actually, eating beets is one of the natural ways to check how quickly you process and extract your food and how long it remains in your system.

Red-beet Detox Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 medium red-beet heads
• 1 small broccoli head
• raw cashew sauce (recipe below)

Preparation: Peel and grate the red-beetroots. Cut the broccoli head into small florets and steam it lightly for a few minutes. Rinse the steamed broccoli in cold water. Arrange the veggies on a plate and serve with the cashew sauce. You may also add some freshly squeezed lemon if you like your salads more juicy.

Raw Cashew Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup raw cashew nuts
• 1/2 cup filtered water
• 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbs freshly-squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tbs honey or agave
• 1 clove garlic (optional)
• 1 handful of greens - fennel leaves, parsley, basil, etc.
• a pinch of Himalayan salt

Preparation: Soak the nuts for a few hours to optimize digestion. Rinse them well, put all ingredients in the shaker and process for a couple of minutes to obtain smooth consistency. The sauce can be stored in a tightly closed jar in the fridge up to 3 days.