With gratitude to my daughter, Elizabeth, for teaching me how to roast beets.
Beets are amazingly delicious root vegetables, available almost all year round at farmers' markets and other places. With only 58 calories per cup, they pack a powerful punch nutritionally, as they are a good source of Vitamin C, Iron, and Magnesium as well as Fiber, Folate, Potassium and Manganese.
I was never a big fan of beets as I grew up on the canned variety, and only discovered how delicious they are recently. Roasted and chilled, they make a simple salad elegant, colorful and full of flavor!! They are amazingly easy to roast, and are more than worth the effort.
When possible, get them with the greens attached.
Roasted Beets with Mango purée
Roast a bunch or two of beets (it's most lovely if you use two different varieties). After they are well cooled. Slice and arrange on separate plates. Spread mango purée over beets and dot with some Sriracha sauce (this amazingly versatile condiment is available almost everywhere and turns up in all sorts of dishes from diners to Michelin-rated restaurants. If you have a moment, you can learn the origins of this sauce by Clicking Here. ) The picture at the top has a bit too much of the hot sauce...a consensus at our table was that little dots would be prettier and make for a better balance of tastes.
Roasted Beets
Preheat oven to 375o (convection) or 400o. Cut the stems off of a bunch of beets, reserving them for later. Wash the beets thoroughly, but do not peel the skin off. Note: Dry the beets to make them easy to peel after they are cooked. Put the beets on ½ of a sheet of aluminum foil and spray with olive oil. Stir them around and spray again, making sure they are lightly coated with oil all over. Add some sea salt. Cover the beets with the other half of the foil and crimp the sides to make a tight seal. Roast for 30 - 50 minutes (depending on the size of the beets) until fork-tender. After they are roasted, they can rest in a cooling oven for quite a bit. Take out and chill. Before serving, peel the skin off the beets. The skin usually just slides off. Be careful as they will color your fingers, especially the dark red varieties.
We usually hit the Agoura Farmers' Market on Sundays, and Elizabeth or I roast all the beets, using them in salads throughout the week.
Click here to get nutrition information in a separate window
Sautéed Beet Greens
Cut the stems off the greens and saute with olive oil and minced garlic just as you would spinach, kale or chard.
Click here for nutrition information - but note the site I use only had data for boiled beet greens (yuck!). The nutritional data actually should be better for the sautéed version!.