One of my favorite root vegetables are beets. Not only are they beautiful (their colors range from intense claret to bright gold, to candy cane stripes) they also have a wonderful texture and an earthy, nutty flavor. They're nutritious and filling. They can be juiced, boiled, pickled, cooked in soups, mashed, sliced in salads, or roasted. Although they have the highest sugar content of all vegetables, they are very low in calories.
Seasonal Spotlight: Beets
Originally from Europe, beets share a common ancestor with chard; the sea beet. Sea beets still grow today on the European Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts, and are wild leafy vegetables that were eaten by our Neanderthal ancestors. Charred beetroots have been excavated at Neolithic sites. The common red beetroot plant that we eat today was originally domesticated somewhere in the Mediterranean area in the second millennium BC and was popular in Babylon, Ancient Egypt, Assyria, and Ancient Greece. The earliest written mention of the beet comes from 8th century BC Mesopotamia. By 850 AD it reached China.
In the 18th century, it was discovered that sucrose could be extracted from sugar beets, thus bringing down the price of sugar as it was no longer required to travel to the tropics to get cane sugar. Europe and Russia produce the most beet sugar, which accounts for over 30% of the world's sugar supply.
The natural red dyes in beets (called betalain) are used to decorate eggs, and to add coloring to sauces, jams, and jellies. Horses that have hay allergies or need more sustenance are fed beet pulp. Beets are also made into wine in some countries.
Beets are popular in Eastern European countries and used mainly in borscht. Many of the world's centenarians live in Eastern Europe, and scientists have been researching a possible link between eating beets and longevity. Eastern European countries that eat a lot of borscht have lower rates of colon cancer, so many scientists think beets may have colon cancer-fighting properties.
Beets can be eaten raw or cooked. When it's winter and there are no tomatoes available, beets make a wonderful addition to a salad. Just peel, boil until tender, and slice up. Or you can grate a raw beet on a salad or soup as a garnish. All parts of the beet are edible; the green leafy tops make wonderful braising greens. Roasting beets brings out the sugars very well and gives them a different flavor and texture than boiled beets.
Some recipes to try:
Beet Salad with Horseradish Cream and Frizzled Sweet Onions
Pickled Beets
Velvety Beet and Cocoa Cake
Beets on Crostini with Goat Cheese
Roasted Beets and Sautéed Greens with Hazelnuts and Goat Cheese
Borscht
Cabbage Beet Coleslaw
Grated Beet Salad with Blue Cheese
Roasted Beet Salad with Barley, Feta, and Red Onion
Related:
Tip: How To Roast and Peel Beets
(Image: Flickr user phxpma - thanks!)
Comments (12)
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I've always been curious if it was okay to eat beet greens. Good to know. Are they bitter, "cook all day" sort of greens? I am not a kale fan, but I love turnip and collard greens cooked down to nothingness. Also a fan of swiss chard.
On another, uh, more personal note... I was going through my Joy of Cooking and decided to try roasting beets. They turned out great and were delicious. I was agast to learn the next day that the, uh, "dye" will show up when the beets "pass through the system." Was that too much information?
VW
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view VirginiaWestfield's profile
Virginia -- they are similar to chard.
And not to be a dick, but are beets really in season in most of the US right now? There really aren't any farmers markets going on right now in the majority of the US...
view any such name's profile
I made a great batch of pickled beets (my recipe is here if anyone wants it ), but I've been peeing fuschia for the last 2 days. Prepare yourself for the side effects.
view MQuinnSweeney's profile
They're in season here in Phoenix and available at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market. I've made beet salad using the whole beat, sauteing the greens until just wilted and serving it with a simple lemon and olive oil dressing--delicious!
view OneWallKitchen's profile
Our farmer's market in DC is still selling beets. I think they're like carrots or parsnips-- easy to store in a root cellar.
view vera in dc's profile
I think the way we use the idea of seasonality here isn't really dependent on farmers markets -- it's more about whether something is naturally available at a certain time of year.
Beets, in this case, are available throughout most of the US, especially the colder areas, since beets store well and can be pulled out of storage all winter. Same with potatoes, many kinds of squash, apples, onions, etc. They are pretty standard root cellar fare.
Tomatoes, on the other hand, are not naturally available in much of the US this time of year, unless they are grown in greenhouses.
But of course it's subjective and every area is different, and all of us will have different reads on what we consider local and seasonal. We try to treat the whole thing like an open, evolving thing - not a binary right/wrong in season/out of season thing.
view faith's profile
Here in Australia we eat tinned beetroot (our name for beets) cold- a summer favourite on hamburgers! (We also put pineapple on hamburgers-don't know if that's an Australian thing or what...)
view bkk's profile
Beets in the farmer's markets here in Northern CA.
view MollyMayhem's profile
Yeah, faith, I just meant that not everyone is in SF/LA (or Phoenix or D.C. -- I know you're in the midwest), and anywhere I see beets they've come from California. Nothing is in season in most of the US right now. Going by traditional foods you'd want to eat this season though, this of course makes sense. It's just hard because there are still so many "farmers market reports" and they're all great looking veggies from warmer climates, which I feel like doesn't apply to most of the readership.
view any such name's profile
any such name - I live in FRIGID upstate NY and at at the farmer's market on Saturday I picked up beets, parsnips, carrots, potatoes and leeks. I shop at a market that only allows participant grown produce. If you find a farmers market in your area they should have them.
view NYKate's profile
bkk,
Pineapple on hamburgers sounds amazing. I must try that out when barbeque season returns.
view Michelle of Montreal's profile
Love, love, love beets. We just picked up a beautiful bunch at our farmer's market. I also use the stems in my cooking (when I bring them home I separate the roots, stems and leaves and use them all for different applications). They're nice, sauteed with lemon and added to potato quiche. Also as a replacement for rhubarb in other applications.
Any such name: they're seasonal in many, many places. But even if people got them and they weren't local, does it matter? Eating locally and seasonally is the trend right now, but when it comes down to it, people should eat what they want, regardless of other's opinions on the matter.
view seidhr's profile