“The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious... You can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip.”
beets— Everyone’s favorite vegetable to hate.
Latin Name: Beta vulgaris
Spanish: betabel, remolacha
Throughout all my years doing cooking demonstrations and talking with customers at market, my beet friends are hands down the most misunderstood and most hated vegetable. Whether it’s the flavor or the texture or the fact that they stain everything pink, people tend to have some boiled beet trauma that they just can’t get over. But there is so much more to this rich root.
Beets, like any root crop, are storage vessels for sugar, and the sweetness that these earthy roots possess is probably their number one defining feature, which is why they some varieties are grown commercially for sugar production.
Grated raw in a slaw, their fresh crisp & crunchy sweetness shines through. Roasted, their sugars develop even more, and they can be used for just about anything — slice up the soft sweet morsels and toss them with chèvre, hazelnuts, and balsamic vinegar with a drizzle of honey for a ridiculously delicious salad; roast them up in a root medley and serve with a garlic herb aioli; puree them up and make a bright pink hummus, or even a chocolate beet cake.
Are Beet Greens Edible?
Yes!!! Beet greens are like a cross between their spinach and chard cousins. With a succulent, juicy leaf and rich flavor, beet greens are a bright addition to salads and sandwiches, can be sautéed to become melt-in-your-mouth tender, or be used in any recipe that calls for spinach or chard. If you seed beets in your garden, it’s a lovely task to thin out your baby beets and enjoy their tender greens, allowing the remaining beets to have enough space to size up well.
Beet Index
Recipes
This bright pink fresh cucumber beet salad is pure joy, the feta and dill are everything with the yogurt dressing.