I can't follow the instructions for this recipe I found here, for beet and cucumber salad with toasted almond salsa verde.

Granted, the directions don't tell you how to macerate the onions and yet refer to them. But this is not baking, which has to be exact. Trust yourself as a cook, read the recipe through completely a few times before cooking, make the dish in a way you like (eg macerate the damn onions or not, plenty of salsas verses have raw onions). If you Luke it repeat; if you don't, dump the recipe or make it differently the second time. Experiment - in smallish quantities if you're worried about waste - & enjoy your results.