Saturday, February 9, 2008

What do I do with . . . beetroot?

And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
Genesis 1:29

God causes our food to grow . . . and then we have to work out what to do with it! Part of our Creation Mandate of having dominion over the earth is learning to creatively and carefully use the resources God has given in the form of food.

Since having a garden, I've been developing plans for what to do with various crops. Here are some beetroot ideas . . .



Dave is eating roasted beetroot with pasta. This is ultra-simple. Roast the beetroot with olive oil. Heat up some cream to boiling point and melt grated parmesan in it. Mix these with the pasta and serve! Beetroot and parmesan go well together.



Dave has encouraged me to develop skills in preserving food, and these are my first efforts! Two jars of pickled beetroot! They have yet to meet the taste test.


Here Dave is cooking a beetroot risotto. This was delicious, and a beautiful scarlet colour! We roasted the beetroot before putting it into the risotto.

We have also used roasted beetroot in green salads, and in potato salad.

Do you have any further beetroot ideas . . . I'll gratefully receive them!

9 comments:

  1. Well...the only thing we've ever done with beets (I've never heard them called beetroot before) is boil them and eat them (as is) along with the meal or can/pickle them and when opened eat along with the meal. (They go well with great northern beans.)

    You have come up with some exotic ways to eat your beets!

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  2. I have never heard of beetroot. Is it the same as beet greens? (which i LOVE...my children do not!). I usually saute quickly with a tad bit of canola oil and sprinkle on parmesan or saute with chopped onion and serve plain. My husband loves it!

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  3. Oh, I did not realise they are not called beetroot in the USA!

    Beetroot or beets are a red root vegetable.

    beet greens sound lovely, Faith . . . maybe they are the leaves from the beetroot? Beetroot take a long time to cook and so I doubt you could just saute them briefly!

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  4. You can make a delicious salad with beetroot, blue cheese and a mix of green leaves. The cheese and beetroot complement eachother beautifully.
    Another nice salad is: boil the beetroot and then let it cool. Slice and mix with raw onion slices, fresh coriander, salt & pepper and a vinaigrette dressing (I like using balsamic and olive oil).
    Enjoy!
    HL, Cape Town

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  5. Wow! Those salads do sound yummy, especially the last one :)! Dave will be pleased to have some more beetroot recipes since he loves the stuff! Thanks for sharing your ideas, HL. It is also fun to hear from someone in Cape Town. I have not yet visited there but hope to do so on our next trip to South Africa.

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  6. Make some yummy beet soup known as borscht.

    The recipe my mom usually would make included (I think) beets, potatoes, cabbage, dill weed, vinegar and ????

    Serve it with a little sour cream or butter stirred in - and eat with "tea biscuits" or baking powder biscuits.

    Delicious!

    My dd loves to eat cold canned beets. I'm not crazy about them that way.

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  7. we have a plastic bag of Owen's homegrown beetroot in our fridge that's been there possibly for 2 months. they haven't gone off yet, well when i last brushed my hand across the plastic bag a couple of weeks ago (they seem to store for ages which is great). I haven't yet got around to cooking them (cos they take so long to cook) and i keep forgetting.

    So... this post gives me some inspiration to get them out. I don't want them to go to waste...

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  8. At my house they are usually just a side dish :-) But I've made a salad by mixing warm lentils, tomato, red onion and serving with beetroot and goats cheese and balsalmic vinaigrette.

    I've also seen it chopped and added to tartare sauce as an accompniment to fish.

    I have eaten the greens from beets before as well. They are quite nice.

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  9. Don't know if you're familiar with him, but Alton Brown has a whole episode of "Good Eats" (my absolute favorite cooking show) about beets -- he does a fridge pickle of beets and red onion slices that I made and devoured. They're so wonderful!!

    Also, check out lastnightsdinner.net, which is a lovely food blog -- she has a few delectable-looking beet recipes.

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