Chayote Salad with Golden Beets and Orange

This Chayote Salad with Golden Beetroot and Orange is refreshing, delicious, summery, and easy to make with a simple homemade salad dressing. The chayote and beets can be added raw or cooked and the recipe can be done within 30 – 40 minutes.

If you’re not familiar with chayote, also known as choko, christophine, vegetable pear or mango squash, it is a kind of squash that is popular in various cuisines around the world in South America, Asia and certain parts of Europe. 

In Mauritian cuisine, chayote squash is often sautéed and served as a side dish. We love this flavourful mildly sweet vegetable in curries, as in this Braised Tofu and Vegetable Curry, and in our famous Niouk Yen, which are chayote dumplings. They are also nice pickled from raw.

These days chayotes are now relatively easy to find at certain grocery stores, although that might depend on regions.

Chayote can be eaten raw but in today’s salad recipe, I like to cook them first, along with the yellow beets. You can leave them both raw if you prefer; they’ll be crunchy, refreshing and the recipe can be done more quickly.

This Chayote salad can be served on its own, or as part of a meal. I love making lettuce wraps with this salad by spooning it into small romaine lettuce leaves topped with some veggie sausages and homemade vegan mayonnaise. Delicious, light, satisfying and relatively low in carb.

Yield: 4 - 5 servings

Chayote Salad with Golden Beets and Orange

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Chayote with Yellow Beetroot and Orange Salad is refreshing, delicious, summery, and easy to make with a simple homemade salad dressing. Serve on its own or as an accompaniment to any dish.

Ingredients

Salad:

• 2 chayotes
• 2 yellow beetroots or yellow squash
• 2 tomatillos, or tomatoes, diced
• 1 orange, with membrane peeled, cut into segments
• 200 g (1 cup) cooked black beans
• Small bunch fresh coriander/cilantro, chopped

Dressing:

• 2 teaspoons lime juice, or apple cider vinegar
• 1 - 2 tablespoons vegan mayonnaise, optional
• 1 - 2 tablespoons olive oil, omit if using mayonnaise
• Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Peel and cut the chayote squash in half lengthwise then scoop out the seed with a spoon.
2. Peel and cut the beetroot in quarters. 
3. In a medium pot, cook the chayote and beetroot in boiling salted water until just tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and let cool.
4. Using a sharp knife, peel the oranges, removing all of the bitter white pith. Working over a bowl, cut in between the membranes to separate and remove the sections. Squeeze the juice from the membranes into the bowl and discard. 
5. Add the rest of the ingredients (chayote, beetroot, tomatillos, black bean and cilantro) to the bowl. Then, add in all the dressing ingredients (lime juice, mayonnaise/olive oil, salt and pepper).
6. Toss and mix well, then serve.

Notes

For variation: add chopped red onions, avocados, sweet corn kernels, boiled cubed potatoes or cucumber

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