Beets were one of my daughter’s favorite foods when she was a baby. We have a photo of her covered in head to toe beet, grinning and reaching out for the camera with her red, dripping fingers. And we wondered where she got that rosy glow.
Since my daughter was tiny, we’ve also been getting a share of vegetables from a farm every week. One of the vegetables that we receive is the delightful beet. At least, they delight my daughter. After eating a lot of well-cooked beets in my childhood, I swore off the things and have only started to renew my interest in them.
If you’re inundated with beets, what can you do with all of them?
Beet salad made out of steamed beets is a tried and true standby. A new variation? Since beets now come in many colors in addition to purple, make a mix and match salad. Mix yellow beets with striped beets with purple beets to add visual interest.
In an effort to win me over to the purple side of the vegetable world, a friend introduced me to the delights of shredded beets on salads. Make a lettuce salad, and peel a beet. Grate the fresh beet and toss it into the salad. This adds sweetness to your salad and is especially good with sunflower seeds and feta cheese.
More beety goodness can be had when you allow the beets’ sweetness to come out when you cook them. Gently steam finely cubed beets, then saute them with onions. Add a strong cheese such as feta and use this as a salad dressing.
Beet pickles are a lovely way to preserve the harvest. Add spices such as cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom to give the pickles a sweet and spicy flavor.
If you are feeling particularly adventurous and creative, try beet cake or beet brownies. Brownies hide a multitude of vegetables, and you can bring together yam, beets, and zucchini in one vegetable-packed gooey chocolate square.
As anyone who has worked with beets in the kitchen can attest, beets also make delightful dyes. Make a simple, child-friendly beet dye by cooking beets in water with a little bit of vinegar. Remove the beets as they get very soft, then add white cotton or silk and mix it into the pot. The cloth will go fuschia and then orange.
Do you have too many beets? What do you do with yours?
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