Tag: Beets

roasted beets

beets roasted vegetables

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whole, unpeeled beets

1. Put whole, unpeeled beets in a baking dish or dutch oven and put ¼” of water in the dish. Cover tightly with foil or the lid of the dutch oven and bake them until tender when stabbed with a paring knife. Usually they take 40 minutes or longer, but young beets might be quicker, depending on their size. In the fall, when the beets are bigger, they may take much longer—up to an hour and a half.
2. Remove from the oven and let them cool. When the beets are cool enough to handle, slip their skins off. Cut in halves lengthwise and then crosswise into ¼-inch thick slices, or in wedges—as you prefer.
3. If you don’t have another plan for the beets, and just want to enjoy them simply, toss them with a little red wine vinegar, olive oil, and salt. The vinegar offsets the sweetness of the beets and really brings out their best.

beet spread

walnuts beets spreads bread crumbs toast toppings

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This Greek beet spread (called pantzarosalata) is such a fantastic color—bright magenta pink—and it tastes great, too. The vinegar cuts the sweetness of the beets, and the walnuts add a wonderful richness. This recipe could very well be the ticket to convert any beet skeptics in your household.
This spread is fantastic on toast made out of Rise & Shine Bakery’s whole grain sourdough bread, especially the toasted walnut bread. It’s a variation of a recipe from Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian. You can serve beet spread with toast and celery sticks as an appetizer, or make a complete meal by serving beet spread on toast with a bowl of lentil soup, or with green cauliflower with parsley and green olives.

2 pounds beets
½ cup walnuts
2 slices of bread (I use our whole-wheat sourdough.)
2 garlic cloves
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
2-4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt, or to taste

1. Peel and cut the beets into ½-inch slices. Steam them until tender (30 or 40 minutes on the stovetop, or 15-18 minutes in the pressure cooker). Reserve the steaming liquid.
2. While the beets are steaming, toast the walnuts in a 350-degree oven for about 15 minutes, until golden brown and fragrant.
3. In a food processor, add ingredients in the following order:
a. Mince the garlic finely.
b. Add the walnuts and grind finely.
c. Tear the bread into chunks, add them to the bowl with the garlic and nuts, and process into fine bread crumbs.
d. Add the cooked beets, olive oil, vinegar, and salt, and process until smooth. Add more steaming liquid or olive oil if you need it to get a smooth puree.

beet salad with horseradish dressing

chard beets horseradish beet greens

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If you’re thinking “Horseradish? With beets?” I don’t blame you. It may sound a bit strange, but I’m not kidding you, this recipe is great. The red wine vinegar and the sharp horseradish contrast really well with the sweet, earthy taste of beets.
This recipe is adapted from one in Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian. It’s great as a side dish with white beans (make the beans from the recipe for kale (or collards) and cabbage with white beans on garlic toast). You could also serve it with other vegetable dishes like oven-roasted carrot slices. If you want to stick to an Eastern European theme, it’s wonderful with the cabbage & mushroom toasts with dill.

12 ounces beets, washed
8 ounces beet greens, chard, or other greens
--------------------------
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons prepared horseradish
¼ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt, or to taste
1 garlic clove, crushed in a garlic press or finely minced

1. Put whole, unpeeled beets in a baking dish or dutch oven and put ¼” of water in the dish. Cover tightly with foil or the lid of the dutch oven and bake them until tender when stabbed with a paring knife. Usually they take 40 minutes or longer, but young beets might be quicker, depending on their size. In the fall, when the beets are bigger, they may take much longer—up to an hour and a half.
2. Remove from the oven and let them cool.
3. While the beets are roasting and then cooling, wash the greens and cut the stems off the greens. If the stems look good (and are edible—for example, beet greens and chard stems are edible, but collard stems are not), chop the stems into ½” pieces. Steam the chopped stems in a steamer until they are tender. Remove them from the steamer and then steam the greens until tender. Drain the greens and chop them up a bit.
4. When the beets are cool enough to handle, slip their skins off. Cut in halves lengthwise and then crosswise into ¼”-thick slices, or in wedges—as you prefer. Put them in a bowl with the greens and stems.
5. Mix up the remaining ingredients, pour the dressing over the beets and greens, and toss. Adjust the seasonings with more vinegar, salt, and/or horseradish. Serve warm or at room temperature.

beet pilaf with dill

beets dill rice pilaf roasted vegetables basmati rice

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This recipe is based on one part of a three-layer Persian pilaf recipe in Mollie Katzen’s Vegetable Heaven, a great cookbook with lots of healthy, simple vegetable recipes. I never make all three of the layers at once, but often make them separately to go with vegetable and bean dishes. The rice is cooked using the lots-0f-water method, which I find works perfectly for brown basmati—it’s never gummy or undercooked this way.

Serve this pilaf with anything that has a slightly Indian flavor—like the carrot & mint salad with currants, for example, or the spicy green peas with onion and ginger, or the red lentils with zucchini. You could also serve it with broccoli, or any cooked green vegetable, tossed with the dip from the broccoli with ginger-tahini dip recipe, and sprinkled with chopped, toasted cashews.

1 1/2 cups uncooked brown basmati rice
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups roasted beets, peeled and finely diced (see roasted beet recipe), or 3 cups of beets peeled, finely diced and steamed until tender
1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
¼ cup minced fresh dill (or 4 teaspoons dried dill)
¼ cup raspberry vinegar (or red wine vinegar)
2 tablespoons honey
freshly ground black pepper

1. If you haven’t cooked the beets yet, do that now.
2. Fill a medium-sized pot with 10 cups or so of water (it doesn’t need be exact) and bring to a rolling boil. Add the rice to the water, turn down the heat, and simmer for 40 minutes, or until the rice is just tender. Drain the rice in a strainer over the sink, and immediately dump back into the hot pot. Cover tightly with the lid and let steam OFF THE HEAT for 20 minutes. Fluff the rice. Now it’s ready to add to the rest of the ingredients.
3. While the rice cooks, heat the olive oil in a skillet. Add the garlic and cook over low heat for about 10 seconds. Add the beets and salt and sauté for about 5 more minutes.
4. Remove from heat and stir in the dill, vinegar, honey, and black pepper to taste. When the rice is finished cooking, stir in the rice, taste again for seasoning, and serve.

salade nicoise with roasted beets & potatoes

tomatoes potatoes salmon carrots beets eggs salads olives halibut asparagus

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When I find myself with a refrigerator full of beautiful Alaskan produce (and sometimes, some fresh seafood), I often prepare this salad to make a big dent in it. Just pick several of the vegetables to prepare. I usually make a huge salad and invite friends over to help eat it, since it’s so beautiful—I just have to share it! It’s a meal in itself if you add plenty of vegetables and serve it with toasted whole wheat bread dunked in olive oil!
lemony vinaigrette

2 garlic cloves, minced
1 small red onion, minced fine
juice of one lemon
¼ cup white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard (if you have grainy mustard too, you can use 1 tablespoon of each)
1 tablespoon honey
½ to 1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
¼ teaspoon cracked pepper
½ cup extra virgin olive oil

Whisk together all the vinaigrette ingredients, except the oil, in a small bowl. Slowly drizzle in the oil while whisking. Season with salt and honey to taste, then set aside.

vegetables (pick 5 or 6 of the following to prepare)

2 pounds garlic-roasted potatoes (see following recipe)
1 pound green beans, blanched in salted water until just tender. Drain the beans and immediately spread them out on a baking sheet spread with a dishtowel. (This allows extra water to evaporate, and the beans stop cooking almost immediately.)
1 pound roasted beets (see following recipe), peeled, sliced into wedges, and tossed with some of the lemony vinaigrette
1 pint cherry tomatoes or several slow-roasted tomatoes (see “tomatoes” section)
4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and quartered (See perfectly cooked hard-boiled eggs in the “sandwiches and things to eat on toast” section.)
1 pound grilled asparagus (see “asparagus” section)
4 roasted red peppers (see following recipe)
1 large cucumber, sliced thin and tossed with some of the lemony vinaigrette
3 large carrots, grated and tossed with some of the lemony vinaigrette

optional fish (pick one if you’d like to include fish in your salad)

fresh Alaskan scallops, threaded on skewers, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and grilled on a clean, oiled rack just until done
kippered salmon, flaked
fresh salmon, seasoned with salt and pepper or lemon pepper, and grilled
fresh halibut, seasoned with salt and pepper or lemon pepper, and grilled

 
salad

½ cup kalamata olives, pitted
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and drained
12 cups of assorted salad greens
cracked pepper

Compose this salad on a large serving platter. Toss the salad greens with some of the lemony vinaigrette, and make a bed of lettuce on the platter. Attractively group each vegetable on the lettuce. Have fun with all those colors! Drizzle vinaigrette over all the vegetables. Scatter the olives and capers over all, and sprinkle cracked pepper over the top. Enjoy!!

garlic-roasted potatoes

2 pounds small Butterball potatoes (or other yellow, waxy potato)
garlic oil (recipe in Step 1.)
sea salt or kosher salt and freshly-ground pepper

1. Make garlic oil: Mash or mince 3 or 4 garlic cloves and cover with ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil. Let steep for 30 minutes if you have time. Strain out the garlic and store the oil in the refrigerator.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the potatoes into halves or quarters. Toss them in a bowl with a few spoonfuls of garlic oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss again.
3. Lightly oil a large baking dish or sheet pan, and transfer the potatoes onto it, making sure that a cut side of each potato is touching the pan. (The side touching the pan will brown nicely). Roast the potatoes until tender and browned, 35 to 40 minutes.

roasted beets
1. Put the beets (unpeeled) in a baking dish and put ¼” of water in the dish. Cover with foil, and bake them until tender when stabbed with a paring knife. Usually they take 40 minutes or longer, but young beets might be quicker, depending on how big they are. In the fall, when the beets are bigger, they may take much longer—up to an hour and a half. Remove from the oven and let cool until you can pick them up without burning yourself.
2. When the beets are cool enough to handle, slip their skins off. Cut in halves lengthwise and then crosswise into ¼-inch thick slices, or in wedges—as you prefer.

roasted red peppers
1. Preheat your grill or broiler. Roast the red peppers, turning them as each side gets blackened.
2. When they are blackened all the way around, place them in a big bowl and cover it with a lid or a plate until the peppers are fairly cool (this steams and cooks the peppers the rest of the way).
3. Peel the skins from the peppers and remove the seeds, but don’t rinse the peppers—just rinse your fingers as you peel the skins off. Slice the peppers into ½” wide pieces.