I've Got The Beets

Red and golden beets -- you have to just assume that anything with that much color has to be good for you, and it's true!

Nutritional Value of Beets

Beets aren't something that have shown up on my dinner table very often -- okay, EVER. (Well, except that one time many years ago when I went on a crazy diet with a friend where we ate only canned beets and hot dogs for several days -- she lost 8 pounds and I gained 2...don't try it, people, just don't.)

I digress.

The shortage of beets in my diet, along with my complete ignorance about how to prepare and eat them, means they are exactly the kind of food that I'd hoped to learn more about. The first, and probably most important, thing I learned about beets is this:

Never ever under any circumstances ever underestimate the staining power of beet juice.

With that being said, you can carefully begin to fix your beets - either raw or cooked. I started off easy, roasting red and golden beets in the oven, then eating them chilled on a salad. They were earthy tasting -- almost a bit TOO earthy for my liking until I added the Feta cheese to the salad. It really helped balance that flavor and made them very very good.



To roast:
Cut the green tops from the beets, leaving about an inch of stem. Scrub each beet thoroughly and trim the base flat so that the beet can sit upright in the dish. Fill the dish with about an inch of water, and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake at 400 degrees (F) for about an hour -- until the tip of a paring knife pierces the flesh of the beet easily.

Pull the pan from the oven. Let it cool for a bit, and then, while the beets are still warm, use a knife to gently slip the skins off and remove the tops. (Note -- I used a very thin filleting knife, which worked beautifully.) Refrigerate the roasted beets in a tightly covered dish in the refrigerator -- they can safely be kept for 3 - 4 days before using.



These were wonderful served as a simple salad, sliced and combined with a few mixed spring greens and a hearty amount of feta cheese with a light sweet dressing.

A few articles of interest:

The 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating

The Minimalist: A Divorce for Beets and Goat Cheese

Recipes for Health: Beets - The New York Times