If you think you don’t like beets, my guess is that you’ve only ever been exposed to the pickled and canned varieties.
But I urge you to set aside those smells and flavors and pick up one of the red, yellow and/or orange varieties at your farmers market. You can boil or saute them. But if you want to be wowed by the flavor, set your oven to 375 degrees and roast.
Roasting draws out the natural sugars in the beets. And if you chop them and toss them in olive oil, sea salt and a bit of balsamic vinegar, they’ll caramelize. [Next time I’m going to try them on the grill.]
With any remaining vinegar and oil, I toss in some walnuts and toast those after the beets for about five to 10 minutes.
Serve with goat cheese and mixed greens and you’ll surely impress your spouse, your guests and your taste buds.
Check out this great combo in January’s New York Times. Here’s the NYTs recipe for Beet and Radicchio Salad w/ Goat Cheese and Pistachios.
Photo from skrockodile’s flickr photostream.
Virtual Farmgirl 