Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Beets Me


I love vegetables. The first time a friend made beets for me, sauteed in butter, a little salt, a little sugar, it was memorable. So different from those slivered things at the salad bars when I was a teen.

In Europe beets are pre-cooked and vacuum packed. Still good. Recently I've found them packaged like that at Middle Eastern and upscale stores out here, but I haven't been willing to pay for the cost of someone else doing the boiling.

Or the baking. Like the following recipe, which is served cold. It's delicious and terrific for a Mediterranean salad, middle eastern side dish, etc. Again, I wish I could credit the source, but I copied it down from a magazine ages ago while I waited for my daughter at the orthodontist's.

I baked the beets last night while it was cool and I was watching a movie. This afternoon I'll slice and season them, in time for my book group. I'm planning on picking up a rotisserie chicken at Soumarelo's along with some humus and tabouleh. I'm looking foward to it.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cover three pounds of beets in a baking dish with foil, or wrap them individually in foil.
Bake for 90 minutes or more, depending on their size, until tender. Cool. Peel. Cube, julienne or slice, as you prefer.

Dressing:
3 tbls lemon juice
1 tbls olive oil
3/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cumin
Salt.

Toss with dressing, garnish with parsely or mint. Adjust seasoning to taste.

5 comments:

  1. I used 2 juice beets into my Veggie juice. It really dominated the color, not so much the taste, of the juice.

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  2. I love beets. So glad to see them getting their due respect.

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  3. My only problem with beets is that they color *everything* they come into contact with. But boy those two options sound delicious!

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  4. I'm like you. I adore vegetables, especially roasted beets. Look forward to trying this dressing.

    My other current favorite is uncooked fresh snap peas. Doesn't get much easier than that.

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