If You Love Beets And You Know It, Clap Your Red-Stained Hands

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been stuffing your maw with summer’s bounty for the past few weeks. The last berries, the last tomatoes and the last patio cocktails have come and gone. So now, much like the weather, your farmers’ market and CSA bin offerings have faded from their original, bright hues. So what are you supposed to do now? Hibernate until April? Why not reach deep into our root cellars and figure out how to cook what’s left?

OdetoBeets

Let’s just say that beets were never my go-to vegetable. Some people are put off by the earthy undertones, but it was always the colour that got me. I grew up in a household where messes just weren’t a thing that happened. So if you wanted to cook you had to clean. Meat prep might require ten minutes of bleach sanitation, but beets became an all day, level four hazard. Before you could even open the crisper drawer to reach for the bloody stash, every surface had to be shielded and the route from sink to stove and back had to be covered in a prophylactic plastic layer.

But even though I had a time where I believed that beets are best left to Food Network chefs with cleaning crews, I’ve beeten that nagging feeling. They’re high in dietary fiber, folate, vitamin B and potassium as well as just yumminess. With the right kind of prep work tools, you can ensure that dinner is made in less than an hour and you aren’t serving up Lady Macbeth hands for dessert!

Summer’s bounty might bring about golden or candy-striped cultivars, but chances are your CSA bin is overflowing with the good ol’ fashioned red stuff. When you’re buying fresh, look for smooth, unblemished specimens that are hard and heavy for their size. If your beets come with their greens intact, make sure to grab healthy ones since they indicate healthy roots. Just like kohlrabi, you can use the leaves as a generic kale or spinach-substitute. Be sure to lop them off before stashing since they’ll continue leeching water and nutrients from your bulbs. Beets’ll last 2-3 months in your crisper before they start to dry out or mold, so give ’em a squeeze before you cook. If you’re already skeptical of this scarlet vegetable, eating a bunch of flabby discs isn’t going to convince you.

 

Don't worry beets, I still love you. via Fresh from Nancy's Garden

Don’t worry beets, you’re a jerk but I still love you. via Fresh from Nancy’s Garden

Once you’ve beetcome committed to your meal, red-hands are a choice not a destiny! Take a few precautions and the only colour you’re worrying about is the one showing up in your toilet.

  • Nitrile Gloves: The easiest way to beat beets is to never let them get close to you to begin with. Grab a pair from your hot sauce making days and glove up before you peel.
  • Plastic Bags: Slide an old bread bag (or beet bag) over your favourite cutting board to keep everything clean. You can also peel your beets inside a bag to ensure you aren’t going Jackson Pollock on your walls.
  • Compartmentalized Grater, V-Slicer or Mandolin: Beet juice stains and the splashback turns anything into a murder scene. Use your favourite IKEA cheese grater to catch and contain all of that red paint.
  • Aluminum Foil: Roasted beets are your friends! Not only are they delicious, but the simple act of roasting sidesteps a lot of your beet-related problems. Skip peeling, give it a few pokes and cover the whole thing in olive oil before throwing into a 375°F oven. Once your roots are manageable, just rub with a paper towel to get ’em to shed their skin.
  • Potato: Apparently you can use half a raw potato as an eraser. Someone else’ll have to tell me if this is true or not.
  • Water: When in doubt, soak your hands, cutting boards and clothing in as much cool water as you can imagineBetanin’s water soluble, so just keep flushing! You can also try to peel them underwater, but you’re probably just going to stain the water red with something else.
That's a nice cutting board you have there. It'd be a real shames if something were to "happen" to it. via Lillybelle Foods

That’s a nice cutting board you have there. It’d be a real shames if something were to “happen” to it. via Lillybelle Foods

If you’re still a beet squeamish and don’t want to risk being caught red-handed, let someone do the dirty work for you. Canned sliced beets will do as a garnish, but their mushy texture and generic taste won’t hold up to the dinner table spotlight. French vacuum-packed beets are a whole ‘nother beast. Cooked, peeled and bagged in their own juice they’ll fill in for any cooked beet application. You can be super lazy and throw the sealed bags straight in boiling water to reheat.

While other earthy roots are relegated to roasted side status, beets are king when it comes to salad. Given that it does need to be brightened up, it’s especially suited to acidic dressings. Why not slice up a few beets, turnips, shallots, toasted almonds and dress the whole thing with a parsley-taragon vinaigrette? Or play to beets’ earthy side and use equally earthy walnuts and  goat cheese? You could also just shred the whole damn thing with fennel, jicama and your other forgotten vegetables for a pretty coleslaw.

Nothing says summer like a jarnic.

Nothing says summer like a jarnic.

The earthy flavour pairs well with equally earthy flavours. Make a nutmeg-laced quiche to use up the rest of your beet leftovers. Play up beets’ sugar content by caramelizing the whole thing. Make a classic borscht laced with tons of dill. You can also make a damn good Bloody Mary! And yes, I know that isn’t supposed to be a main, but you make a liquid lunch a meal if you really put your mind to it.

BeetQuiche

But if you’re a fan of the red, beet brave and embrace the stain. All it takes is a bit of beets and a pot of water to extract the colour. Use it to dye yarn, fabric, egg shells or even your own lips. You can even use it as a litmus test if you want to show some kiddies a magic trick. If you’re still thinking the edible side of things, get into the holiday season with festive devilled egg appies, naturally tinted buttercream frosting and a moister and redder red velvet cake.

Or you know, you could just be like my girlfriend’s mom and fill our stockings with vacuum-packed beets.

(And a Beet Fan Bonus from Kathryn!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7c3bQQmwVE‎

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Kristen

Hailing from Vancouver, Kristen's still trying to figure out how to survive Montreal's Real Legitimate Canadian Winter. So far she's discovered that warm socks, giant toques and Tabby kittens all play a role in her survival. Her ultimate goal is to rank higher than KStew in the "Kristen + Autostraddle" Google Search competition.

Kristen has written 139 articles for us.

16 Comments

  1. I do a lot of natural dyeing and while beets work great for dyeing frosting and other raw things, they aren’t always the same when cooked. Cooking up a pot of beets and soaking yarn or fabric in them will miraculously not dye yarn or fabric. One time it turned yarn a soft yellow, not that glorious magenta color. Another time I used a little beet juice to dye a cake pink and after baking, the cake turned a weird yellowy brown color.

    Otherwise, LOVE beets.

    • Betanin becomes that yellow colour when it gets on the basic side of the spectrum. I’ve only used it to dye easter eggs which are pretty acidic to begin with, so that’s probably why I lucked out. I wonder if adding acid to the dying process would help fix the pink.

      But that also reminds me of one semi-cure to red hands! Scrub with a bit of baking soda and that obvious red will turn to a slightly less obvious yellow-brown.

  2. Wait, what is the thing in the picture with the three jars? Do you have a recipe for that, because it looks really good!

    • They’re crustless quiches made with fridge leftovers! I usually stick to a ratio of 1 cup dairy (half and half or cream): 2 eggs : 1/2 tsp salt and a bit of grated nutmeg and black pepper. For the filling I alternated layers of grated swiss, sauteed onions and leftover beet rounds. Bake it in a 350 degree oven until it sets (~30-40 minutes) and you’re good to go!

  3. using a potato as a beet eraser is like, the most russian thing i have ever heard of in my whole life and i am so into this idea.

  4. i don’t really know if this is unseasonal or impossible-for-locavores but if you can get beetroot (juice) and passionfruit together, it’s really good!

  5. By the way, if you love beets, you might want to check out all of the recipe blog posts from the Virtual Vegan Potluck that just happened on Nov. 16th.– the featured ingredient was beets, so there are TONS of beet recipes from over 100 food bloggers (appetizers, drinks, soups, salads, breads, mains, desserts)!

    http://virtualveganpotluck.com/november-2013/

    (I participated with my blog, too, in the Breads category, but I didn’t post a beet-related recipe, since it was optional to use the featured ingredient)

  6. I’m gonna steal some nitrile gloves from my lab next time I feel the need to roast some beets. Thanks for the tip!

  7. “If you’re still a beet squeamish and don’t want to risk being caught red-handed”
    *Golf clap*

Comments are closed.