When someone brings up the vegetable known as beets, most of us recall those nasty pickled beets from school. Or we may think that the only thing you can make with beets is borscht. Well… throw off those bad connotations of the past and give the beet another try!
Last night I made a salad with yellow beets. I found a recipe in the cookbook Vegetable Love and modified it a bit. It called for endive - which I couldn’t find at the grocery store that I went to. Not wanting to run all over town for endive, I used spinach and mustard greens. Boil the beets whole. Then, when cool, peel the skins off by rubbing them. That was cool! So much easier than peeling them with a potato peeler as I’ve done in the past. Dice or slice the beets and toss with the greens. Sprinkle with a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Viola! Delicious and healthy.
I’ve also made something called Red Flannel Hash with red beets, sweet potatoes and Yukon gold potatoes. Roast it in the oven instead of the more traditional frying. If your diet doesn’t allow potatoes, substitute celery root. That’s another vegetable that I’ve recently tried and discovered that it is actually quite good.
You can also eat the beet greens. Just use as you would spinach, kale, or swiss chard in any cooked dish.
And they’re quite nutritious too - high in Vitamin C - and high in betaine which is good for fighting heart disease. And the Romans once thought of beets as an aphrodisiac. Now, go eat some beets.
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