Beets

[zepgoddess]

Right now, I'm roasting some beets. I've never roasted beets before. I was not aware that they would turn my cutting board permanently red. I'm puzzled about what to do with the stems - I've heard you can eat them, but how? Cooked? As salad? These looked pretty questionable, so I didn't have any issues with throwing them away, but I'm curious

Comments

[yume_no_tenshi]

Yeah, beets are nature's original Red Dye #40. They used to use it to stain red velvet cake back in the old days before commercial-grade food dyes were around.

I myself cannot stand beets, so I can't help you on the beet stem issue.

[ladyotterfae]

another valuable note: if you're going to steam beets, don't cut them up first, or they'll loose a lot of their colouration into the water, and leave you with pinkish (if you're lucky) or greyish (if you're not) beets. Nothing wrong with them eating wise, it's just a drastic colour change.

Beet stems/greens (generally it's the greens people do this to, but the stems are still attached to said greens) are much like cooking any other green. Wilt it with some garlic or an interesting sauce, or sautee with whatever interests you. Stems by themselves would be a sautee or stir-fry type of thing, whether alone or with other fresh veggies. I haven't had them in years, so I don't remember where they fall on the flavour spectrum for dark greens, but a lot of people like them. (If I could find decent looking beets that didn't cost an arm and a leg around here for more than 2 weeks a year, I'd probably give it a try. Will have to haunt the farmer's markets.)