Beets

My daughter Kit had a hankering for beets which worked out well since they're in season. If you hate beets (as I thought I did), perhaps you've never tried them fresh. I grew up on canned beets and, as far I was concerned, they had no redeeming quality. Fresh beets, and I mean really fresh beets, are a whole other story. Buy them from a farmstand or farmer's market and cook them the same day, if at all possible.

The three best things about beets are:
1. The color: when else do you get to play with ruby red if you're not an artist?
2. You can cook the tops and bottoms. When my kids were little, we were fond of a picture book called Tops & Bottoms (Caldecott Honor Book) by Janet Stevens. In it, a crafty rabbit tricks his bear partner out of the best part of their harvest - taking the tops of leafy vegetables and the bottoms of root vegetables. With beets, no matter what trickster you run into, you'll still have a meal: you can eat the beet root (the beets) and the greens as well. Simple recipes for both are further down the post.
3. By the time I'm finished cooking, both my kitchen counter and my hands look like I've just committed a murder. Even so, clean-up's not nearly as scary as it looks like it'll be the first time you cook them.


As with any other deeply colored vegetable, beets are loaded with nutrients.

And, now, for the fun part - How To!

Boiled Beets:
I usually buy two bunches of beets because they're good cold so two bunches means we have enough for a few days (why go through the process if I'm only going to have one meal's worth?).  Cut off the greens about a 1/2 inch from the beet root and put aside. Keep the "tail" of the root attached. Wash the beets and put in a large pot of water (the water should cover the beets). Boil, covered, for 30 minutes or more until you can pierce them with a fork (I often boil them for an hour). Once cooked, put the beets in cold water to cool them off. When cool enough to handle, cut off the remaining stalk and "tail". The skin will slide off in your hands. Slice beets. That's it! You can get fancier if you like, but then you're on your own. I enjoy my veggies with their natural taste so I tend to leave them alone. However, for a change of pace, here's a recipe for:

Spicy Beet Greens:
Double or triple rinse the greens from your beets. Boil them in water for 2 minutes. Submerge them in cold water to stop the cooking process and then strain and squeeze out the liquid from them. Slice two garlic cloves and add them to 3 or 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan (or, if you're lazy like me, the pot you boiled the greens in). Also throw in 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Heat the garlic, pepper and oil for a minute, then sautee the greens in them for 3 minutes and you're done. If you have a lemon lying around, you can squeeze some lemon juice on them, too. Again, serve hot or cold.

Beet tops and bottoms. Add a whole grain and you've got dinner!

Salud!