Divine Foods

This part one of an intermittent series of posts about foods I love. Today: beets. Those delicious root vegetables that not only are yummy when you eat them fully matured, but you can harvest the greens and eat them, too. My mom always grew beets in her garden. They sprout quickly and are one of the few things that thrive at 6500 feet -- warm days, cold nights. She'd always harvest a few meals when they were just starting to get a plump root and then steam the whole plant: tops and bottoms. Melt butter over the dish, a little cider vinegar, salt and pepper and my dad couldn't get enough of it. Me too. While I didn't appreciate fresh spinach as a child, I gobbled beet greens.

Then, when the plants grew their full round roots, the real purpose for the beets was revealed: pickling. I loved pickled beets. I could have eaten them every day and every meal (well...maybe not breakfast.) One year, as an adult, I was visiting her and as we set the table, with pickled beets of course, for dinner, I commented on how much I loved them. She said, "Remember that one summer when we ate them for every dinner?"  I confessed that I wouldn't have noticed because I loved eating them. Well, apparently, just as she'd get the dinner served, (at 1:00 PM) some visitor inevitably arrived. Mother would look at the table, slice some more bread and add a bowl of pickled beets to stretch what she'd made to serve the normal crowd. She said, "I put the pickled beets out to make it look like there was enough to feed everyone. And then, I'd cut up a pork chop into pieces and put a few bites on you kids' plates so there would be enough to serve the guests."   Now, as I look back on it, I see that our visitors were no dummies. Of course they'd arrive around 1:00 PM. They KNEW she'd be serving a meal and she was an awesome cook.

As an adult, I've never made pickled beets. I'm afraid of the pressure canner and I've never tried using one. I've only hot-packed fruit and tomatoes. However, I have also spent most of my adult life living in areas where food was grown year round and I didn't have to depend on my basement treasures to feed the family through the looooonnng winter. I could usually buy fresh beets any old time. So I did, and just cooked them and kept them in the refrigerator to slice up on salads or eat by themselves.

My latest favorite way:  chopped up and dressed with white balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Or you can use rice vinegar and olive oil---it's just as yummy. I'll mix up a batch of this and take a little in my lunch every day for a week and, coupled with my cup of non-fat cottage cheese, it is one of the most satisfying lunches ever. 

Plus, you get the excitement of beeturia. (I didn't realize there was a name for this until now.) Seriously---eat beets every day for a week and your body becomes infused with color. Lots of color. I'll stop now before I get too graphic. But --- you should go buy some beets. Only buy the beets that have greens attached. I made the error recently of buying some beets that were just in a bin, with the greens cut off. I have no idea how old they were, but they weren't good at all. No sweet juiciness was left in them. I know that beets are one of those root crops that one can store without refrigeration, so that made them popular in northern & eastern European climates, and the Rocky Mountain West. But, I'll stick to beets that have the greens attached from now on.

 If the greens are too big and tough, then just chop them up and compost them. But if they look smallish and tender still, steam them like fresh spinach and enjoy with butter and vinegar. Cook the beets (cut off the tops leaving about 2 inches of stem behind) for about 40 minutes in water. Test them for doneness--they'll cut easily with a paring knife. Then, pour off the water, let them cool so you can hold one without burning your hand. Then, cut off the stems, also a little of the root end, and just use your hand to rub off the skin. It should easily come off. Then, put the beets in a covered container in the fridge and they'll last for about five days--if you don't eat them all the first day.