Fresh beets make canned vegetable pale in comparison
Until this winter when I challenged myself to cook with five new
ingredients, I had never before eaten a home-cooked beet. I’ve
eaten beets plenty of times
– always from a can and usually tossed on top of a salad. But it
was not until I found a recipe for roasted root vegetables that I
even considered cooking them at home.
Fresh beets make canned vegetable pale in comparison
Until this winter when I challenged myself to cook with five new ingredients, I had never before eaten a home-cooked beet. I’ve eaten beets plenty of times – always from a can and usually tossed on top of a salad. But it was not until I found a recipe for roasted root vegetables that I even considered cooking them at home.
Roasting beets is simple enough, if a bit messy when it comes time to peel and slice them. The method I used is courtesy of Tyler Florence and involves washing them off, wrapping them loosely in foil with some olive oil and thyme, and roasting for about an hour. The local farmers market has several vendors that have plenty of beets, from golden beets to the typical red beets to deep purple ones. They have slightly different flavors, but are mostly interchangeable.
After roasting the beets, I allowed them to cool and then peeled off the skin. Leaving the skin on while roasting helps them to stay moist. The peeling can be a hassle as beet juice will turn your skin red but it was an easy job with the help of a vegetable peeler.
The fresh beets roasted at home have a sweet flavor and pair well with any salad that combines a few salty ingredients such as the olives and feta cheese in the salad below. Though the recipe called for canned beets, I used ones roasted at home. The home-cooked beets have a much more complex flavor than the canned beets, including an earthy flavor underneath the sweetness. It’s almost the difference between drinking a light white wine and full-bodied red wine in terms of the flavor difference.
Now that I’ve cooked beets at home, I’m not sure I will be able to go back to the canned variety. The other recipes include a soup that is best saved for weekends, given the time needed to prepare it as well as a slaw recipe that uses raw beets for a quick weekday side.
Roasted beet salad
Recipe courtesy of Paula Deen
2 (15 1/4-ounce) cans sliced beets, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 c. crumbled feta cheese
1/2 c. pitted ripe olives
1/4 c. chopped fresh dill
1/2 c. olive oil
1/4 c. rice wine vinegar
Salt, pepper and garlic powder, to taste
Dash hot sauce
Remove broiler tray from oven and coat with nonstick cooking spray. Replace tray and preheat broiler. After beets are drained place on coated broiler tray. Place under hot broiler, turning every 2 to 3 minutes until edges start to brown, approximately 8 to 10 minutes. Remove beets from oven and allow to cool. Mix remaining ingredients with cooled beets. Toss and serve.
Roasted Beet Borscht
Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence
1 lb. beets
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 sprigs fresh thyme
6 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
6 c. chicken stock, heated
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 tbsp. honey
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled
2 tbsp. chopped fresh dill
Sour cream, for garnish
Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Scrub the beets and put them on a large piece of aluminum foil; season with salt and pepper, add 3 thyme sprigs, and drizzle with 3 tablespoons olive oil. Bake until the beets are tender, about 1 hour. Set aside. When the beets are cool enough to handle but still warm, slip off their skins, and chop them into large chunks. In a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, add the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil. Put in the onion, carrots, garlic, and remaining 3 thyme sprigs and cook until softened and just starting to color, about 10 minutes. Add the chicken stock and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. Remove the thyme sprigs. Put the chopped beets into a blender and add the cooked vegetables and most of the stock. Blend until smooth, add more stock if the puree is too thick. Add the vinegar and honey; season with salt and pepper. Blend again to incorporate flavors. Borscht can be served hot or cold.
To make the garnish, grate the apple on the large holes of a box grater and mix in the dill. Serve in bowls, garnished with a big dollop of sour cream and topped with the apple and dill mixture.
Sweet beet dressed slaw
Recipe courtesy of Rachael Ray
1/3 c. extra-virgin olive oil, plus 3 tablespoons
2 small to medium-sized red beets, peeled and grated
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 heaping tbsp. Dijon mustard
3 tbsp. red wine vinegar
3 tbsp. chopped fresh dill
8 to 10 radishes, julienned
1/2 small head red cabbage, thinly shredded
3 bias cut scallions
2 rounded spoonfuls dill pickle relish
Preheat a medium size skillet over medium-high heat with 3 turns of the pan of extra-virgin olive oil, about 3 tablespoons. Once you see the oil ripple in the pan add the grated beets, season with some salt and pepper and cook stirring every now and then until they are tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer the beets to a bowl and let them cool down a bit. Add the mustard and the vinegar to the beets. Whisk in the remaining extra-virgin olive oil in a slow and steady stream. Add the fresh dill, radishes, shredded cabbage, sliced scallions and relish and toss to combine, taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve now or the next day.
