Vegetable of the Month

It's that time again!  Drumroll please.






drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr........

Yum yum yummmm!

Beets!!!

Beets have a bad reputation with many people, and I have to admit, I was one of them.  I hated beets.  With a passion.  For no good reason at all really, simply because I had a bad childhood memory of once eating some of my mom's favourite thing - pickled beets.  And they were horrific.  I didn't touch beets again for like 20 years, and didn't want anything to do with them.

That changed a couple of years ago when I came to nutrition school, and one of our assignments was to prepare ----- wait for it ---- PICKLED BEETS!  Really????

So I boiled and peeled and chopped and pickled my beets.  Decided to be brave and taste test it.  Huh.  Not as bad as I remembered it being.  In fact... they were kind of delicious.  I wondered what other delicious beety goodness I was missing out on.  I started trying roasted beets, grated beets, pickled beets, and all kinds of beets.  Did you know that there are tons of different varieties of beets, and each of them has a special taste and colour?

Here's some nifty things about beets according to the Canadian Nutrient File.  For one raw beet, you get:

• Only 35 calories!
• 1.6g of fibre
• 266mg of potassium
• about 23% of a woman's vitamin A needs (18% if you're a man)
• 22% of a woman's folate needs
• 20mg of plant sterol, which have been suggested to help lower cholesterol

How did I spend so long ignoring these little gems?!

Tell me more!

Beets can be enjoyed in many ways.  Raw beets can be peeled and grated to toss into salads, for example, or beets can be boiled and sliced and devoured.  My favourite way, though, is roasting beets.  Wash your beets well, keep the skin on, and rub it all over with olive or canola oil.  Cook it in the oven in a roasting pan or baking dish at 400 F for about 45 minutes, till the beet is fork-tender (depends on the size of your beets/power of your oven).  Bring it out of the oven, and wait till it cools enough to be handled.  Use a paper towel and rub the outside of the beet -- the skin should come off fairly easily!  

And FYI, if you want to prevent your hands and cutting board from getting all red-stained and unusable, rub your fingers and plastic (NOT WOOD!) cutting board with oil first.  The redness won't soak through and will wash off easily :)

I mentioned earlier that there are lots of different kinds of beets.  Check out this link to thenibble and see how many you can find in your farmer's market!  Red beets are the most common kind, but I have also had the pleasure of seeing (and eating!) golden beets and candy-cane beets. The flavour is similar, though the golden ones are a bit milder and the candy canes are a bit sweeter.

And don't discount the greens that come with the beets in some stores/markets -- they're edible too!  Just make sure to eat them the day of or maybe the day after, as they won't last very long :(

Enough already!  Give me a recipe!

I made this salad months ago on a whim, and it turned out to be amazing.

Roasted Beet, Apple, and Celery Salad with Horseradish dressing and walnuts

Serves 4

3 beets, roasted as described above and sliced

2 Tbsp vegetable oil or olive oil

1 Tbsp cider vinegar

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp prepared horseradish

1/2 tsp salt

1 apple (any variety, but Granny Smith and honeycrisp seem to be good ones), cored and sliced thin

1-2 stalks celery, thinly sliced on the bias (to make it fancy :) )

1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion

1/4 cup walnut pieces (option - replace walnuts with pumpkin seeds! mmm)

Roast beets as described earlier.

In a bowl, combine oil, vinegar, sugar, horseradish and salt.  Toss beets with 1 Tbsp of dressing.

Toss the apple, celery and onion with remaining dressing.  Add the beets.  Sprinkle with walnuts/seeds. 

Eat!

mmmmmmmm.....

Beet salads can be really simple - such as simply combining a handful of mixed greens with sliced roasted beets and maybe topped with some goat cheese.  Or, grate up a beet and serve in a chef salad with chopped cucumber, tomatoes, and maybe shredded carrots (because they too are deeeeelish!)

What's your favourite way to enjoy beets?