This chilly purple beet salad with carrots, mayo and cilantro is creamy, tangy, and surprisingly refreshing—good for summer time BBQs, potlucks, or meal prep.

Red Beet Salad
I’ll be trustworthy—beets have by no means been my go-to vegetable. But this creamy beet salad recipe utterly modified my thoughts. Made with tender purple beets, carrots, mayo, and a number of recent cilantro, it’s vivid, refreshing, and completely sudden. It jogs my memory of a lighter potato salad, making it the right aspect dish on your subsequent BBQ or summer time potluck. This is the recipe that lastly acquired me to love beets—and to my husband’s shock, he went again for seconds! For one other variation, attempt my Raw Beet Salad with Apples and Carrots.
What You’ll Need
Here are the substances for this creamy beet salad recipe. See the recipe card under for the precise measurements.
- Red Beets: Cut off the stems and leaves, and wash the beets. Try to get beets about the identical dimension, so that they cook dinner evenly.
- Carrots add taste plus vitamin A and fiber.
- Fresh Cilantro balances the sharp onions and creamy mayo.
- Onions for crunch
- Light Mayo for creaminess.
- Salt and Black Pepper for seasoning
Yield: 6 servings
Serving Size: 1 cup salad
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Boil beets in water till tender, about 50 minutes. Peel and reduce into small ½” cubes.
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Add the carrots to the boiling water and cook 15-20 minutes until tender. Drain and cut into bite size cubes.
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Combine diced onion, carrots, beets, mayonnaise, cilantro, salt and pepper.
Last Step:
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Serving: 1 cup salad, Calories: 65 kcal, Carbohydrates: 10 g, Protein: 1.5 g, Fat: 2.5 g, Saturated Fat: 0.5 g, Sodium: 145 mg, Fiber: 3 g, Sugar: 6 g
How to Make Beet Salad
Prep the onions and cilantro whereas the beets and carrots cook dinner. Once they’re performed, it solely takes a couple of minutes to assemble the salad. See the recipe card on the backside for printable instructions.



- Cook the Vegetables: Put the beets in a big pot and cowl with water. Bring it to a boil and cook dinner for about 50 minutes till tender. Remove the beets with a strainer or slotted spoon and add the carrots to the boiling water. Cook till tender and drain.
- Cut the Veggies: Peel the beets by rubbing the pores and skin off along with your fingers whereas rinsing them below water. Then, reduce the beets and carrots into small cubes.
- Make the Salad: Combine the beets and carrots with diced onions, mayo, cilantro, salt, and pepper.

Variations
- Beets: If you’re brief on time, purchase precooked beets within the produce part of your grocery store. They’re a improbable timesaver. And you should use canned if wanted, however nothing beats recent beets.
- Make It Golden: Substitute golden beets.
- Roasted Beet Salad: To roast the beets as a substitute of boiling, wrap them in foil and bake on a rimmed baking sheet at 400°F, relying on their dimension, for 50 minutes to 1 hour quarter-hour. Once you possibly can simply pierce them with a fork, take away them from the oven and allow them to cool.
- Onions: Use scallions or purple onions.
- Vegan: Use vegan mayo as a substitute of standard.
- Herbs: If you don’t like cilantro or wish to attempt one thing completely different, swap it with dill, or chives.
- Unexpected Twist: My good friend makes the same salad, however she provides chopped sizzling canines. It sounds unusual, I do know, but it surely’s truly actually good!
Serving Suggestions
This summer time beet salad is a improbable aspect dish for weeknight dinners or yard BBQs. Here are some concepts that may be delish with it:
Storage Tips
Since this purple beet salad is eaten chilly, it’s good to prep forward.
- Make Ahead: Prepare the salad a day early and refrigerate till able to serve.
- Refrigerate for as much as 4 days complete. Since it accommodates mayo, don’t go away it at room temperature for greater than 2 hours.
Skinnytasters Tried It & Loved It!
This creamy beet salad has been a success in kitchens throughout—right here’s what a few of you needed to say (and the enjoyable twists you tried!):
- “This is the strangest salad recipe, lol. BUT, it was so good I ate the whole thing myself!” – One reader used pre-cooked Love Beets and skipped the cilantro—nonetheless a win!
- “I added green peas and a splash of Highland House dressing to the mayo—also delicious!” – Victoria
- “I’m not a carrot fan, but I add them anyway for the nutrition. You can’t really taste them!”
- “My family devoured this at our 4th of July BBQ. I used canned beets, matchstick carrots, and added dill. It was gone before I got a bite!”
- “I subbed parsley for cilantro and it was great. A tasty way to use up extra carrots!”

More Beet Recipes You’ll Love
For extra dinner and aspect dish concepts utilizing beets, take a look at these 5 scrumptious beet recipes to encourage your subsequent meal!
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