I KNOW, I’LL NEVER WIN A POPULARITY CONTEST by campaigning for beets, one of those foods that really divides a crowd. But when the group of food bloggers I’ve been collaborating with on Summer (and lately Fall) Fest proclaimed this week to be themed “Fall Salads,” asking what I’d put on mine, I knew what my other-than-greens ingredient would be. How do I love thee, Beta vulgaris subspecies vulgaris?
I love thee simply roasted, then skinned, sliced and tossed with Balsamic and oil—beets vinaigrette, so to speak, and a salad unto itself. (For a variation on the dressing, use fresh orange juice in place of some of the vinegar.)
I love thee (vinaigrette and all) on top of tender salad greens, whose slightly sweet taste offsets your all-undergroundly, Fruit-of-the-Earth flavor.
I love thee even better when a dollop of warmed chevre and a handful of pepitas (pumpkin seeds) are the third and fourth layer in the above-described deal (top photo).
And sweetheart, you aren’t bad with crumbles of blue cheese and either walnuts or pepitas, either.
Roasting and Growing Beets
HERE AT MARGARET ROACH INC. World Headquarters, we roast a bunch of beets most weeks of the year. Simply trim the (edible) tops a half-inch or so from the beet (if you cut flush, the beet will bleed while cooking), wash the root, and place it in a Pyrex baking pan or on a baking sheet in 375 oven until tender, 30 to 90 minutes depending on size of the beet. A sharp paring knife inserted easily indicates doneness.
Everyone worries about all that pink juice–on their hands, on their pans. That’s why I use glass; I find that the glass pan is easier to clean than enamel or metal. Some much more expert cooks recommend wrapping each beet in foil first, or putting a little water in the pan then covering it with foil or a lid to bake the beets (which speeds cooking somewhat, and may reduce burned-on beet juice).
The tops, not incidentally, are highly nutritious and almost identical botanically to Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris subspecies cicla), which is called silverbeet in England and elsewhere. I grow one variety, ‘Bull’s Blood,’ above, mostly for its tops, which are a rich reddish color: beautiful and delicious.
Beets are wildly easy to grow, by direct-sowing seed in a well-cultivated bed (sun to part shade) starting as soon as the ground can be worked in spring, and re-sowing another short row or block every two weeks through midsummer.
The only trick: Each “seed” is actually a withered seedpod, containing the potential for two to four plants, so you must thin—best done by clipping the extras with a scissor—or there will be no room for any of the desired underground parts to develop.
Sound like a harsh sacrifice? Not really. If you time things just right, the baby greens you just thinned out make a delicious—you guessed it—fall (or spring, or summer) salad of their own.
Fall Salad Links from My Expert Friends
- Gilded Fork: Red & White Salad with Candied Pecans, Figs & Chevre
- Caroline at the Wright Recipes: Salt-Roasted Beet and Potato Salad
- Michelle at Cooking Channel: 5 Fab Fall Salads
- Liz at Healthy Eats: 5 Favorite Fall Salads
- Alison at Food2: Fall Salads, Deconstructed
- Alana at Eating From the Ground Up: Kale Salad
- Todd and Diane at White on Rice Couple: Arugula, Bacon and Fig Salad
- Caron at San Diego Foodstuff: Wheat Berry Salad with Apples and Pomegranate Seeds
- Nicole at Pinch My Salt: Spinach Pomegranate Salad with Apples and Walnuts
- Cate at Sweetnicks: Bleu Cheese and Walnut Salad with Maple Dressing
- Paige at The Sister Project: Chopped Salad That’s Also an Hors D’Ouevre
What’s a Fall Fest?
FALL FEST IS A cross-blog recipe (and tip) swap–and you’re invited to participate. Simply post your link or recipe or idea in the comments below my post, and also on the blogs of the other participants listed in the recipe links box just above.
Want more information on how it all works? Get the details (and the schedule for upcoming weeks, including our shift into Fall Fest last week after many weeks of Summer Fest, with a new logo but the same recipe-sharing routine). We’re continuing right into the Thanksgiving holiday.
I just recently discovered how tasty beets can be when they don’t come in an aluminum can. Granted, I didn’t grow mine, but the ones I got from the farmer’s market were pretty tasty in the farro and goat cheese salad I made.
Roasted Beets go great with anything in an autumn dinner. Peel and quarter, or smaller if they’re big, toss with olive oil and garlic cloves (whole cloves unpeeled), salt & pepper and maybe a sprinkle of an herb of your choice… Roast at 375 until the beets are tender… a half hour ????… the garlics will be soft and tender too – mush them onto bread with olive oil. The beets will be something out of this world. Nice side to anything grilled out in the autumn air.
I only recently started liking beets. Roasted I agree are the best way to eat them.
I adore these – in the UK we call them “beetroot” (one word). Roasted, cooled, oil and balsamic on top of peppery greens – you can feel the vitamins and minerals entering your body. I grew them for the first time this year, and could not believe how easy they were.
I did a fall salad with grapes, figs, fennel and rocket
http://machetiseimangiato.com/2010/10/fall-fest-fall-salad-with-grapes-and-figs/
I offered it to my guest from Virginia. She liked a lot it, and even my boyfriend loved it.
I’ve come to appreciate beets later in life- as a child I really disliked them. But there is something about that earthy nuance they have. Rossela’s recipe sounds perfect to me.
I used to *hate* beets (associating them with supermarket vacuum packed vegetable grossness) until my beet-obsessed girlfriend introduced me to the real things a few years ago. I initially screwed my nose up when she suggested a beet-based salad, but over the years she’s sold them to me (mainly through her perfect cooking of the purple spheres and adding goat’s cheese and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and virgin olive oil over them… yum!). They’re now one of my top salad vegetables. Now that’s love for you :)
Have always loved beets. My spouse[the cook] sautes them with garlic and olive oil and then I just microwave them as a side dish. He also sometimes combines them with sauteed squash. I’m now going to try them on a salad-it sounds delicious.
I love beets and think they are wonderful plain or on a salad (especially with orange).
For my fall fest salad, I used grilled apples, shallots, and shredded brussel sprouts along with a maple-mustard vinaigrette: http://savorymomentsblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/grilled-apple-salad-with-maple-mustard.html
I am not alone! :)
Welcome to beet-lovers Richard, Linda and Tor — and hello to others among you who also confess you love beets, too.
Tor, I laughed out loud about a “beet-obsessed girlfriend.” Hilarious.
Richard, I will try with garlic next batch. Thank you.
Linda, aren’t they easy? Such magic, when suddenly, besides all those greens, you get the big fat root, too!
See you all soon again, I hope.
Here is one of my favorite fall salads.
Apple-Pear Salad
Ingredients:
1 (16 oz.) package Romaine lettuce, washed and broken into bite-size pieces
1 (6 oz.) block Swiss cheese, grated
1 C cashews
1/2 C sweetened dried cranberries
1 large apple, chopped and rinsed in lemon water to keep from turning brown
1 large pear, chopped and rinsed in lemon water to keep from turning brown
Poppy Seed Salad Dressing (recipe below)
Directions:
Toss together all ingredients in a large bowl. Yield: 6-8 servings.
Poppy Seed Salad Dressing
Ingredients:
1/2 C sugar
2/3 C oil
1/4 C vinegar
1 t mustard
1 t salt
1-2 t poppy seeds
Directions:
Place in jar and shake to combine.
They are tasty in a salad, I’ll grant you. However, they really ought to come with a warning for the first-timer as to what to expect the next day (regarding certain, er, changes in color of, um, stuff), so that said first-timer doesn’t rush herself off to the emergency room, convinced that she’s dying. Not that I would know anything about that. ;-)
Welcome, Julie, and thank you for the recipe. What a delicious-sounding set of ingredients. :) See you soon again!
I’ve loved beets my whole life. That includes the canned kind, which were the only ones we had growing up. My husband isn’t wild about them, so I don’t make them much at home. These great ideas might change that!
Here are some ideas for make ahead salad toppings
http://vegetarianirvana.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/homemade-salad-toppings/
Ah, beets….I don’t grow them, but I love them. Sadly the only one in my family who does. But these recipes have inspired me to attempt another food intervention. Thank you.
I sure do love beets in a salad, and I love it with goat cheese too. But for this Fall Fest post I roasted pears and paired them with radicchio and endive, topped with blue cheese and walnuts. It’s all drizzled in a maple-Dijon vinaigrette.
http://www.gastronomersguide.com/2010/10/roasted-seckel-pear-endive-and.html
Yes, bring on the beets! I love them roasted and since no one else in my family will eat them, I am in beet heaven.
I’m definitely with you on the love of beets! I used them in my salad too.
Beet and apple salad:
http://4seasonsoffood.blogspot.com/2010/10/beet-and-apple-salad.html
For Fall Fest:
This simple Arugula and Mustard Salad captures the taste of fall.
http://purplecook.blogspot.com/2010/10/arugula-mustard-salad.html
As a small child, I was traumatized by beets. Sounds strange, but it’s true. I really loved candied apples; my Granny would buy them for me. Remember them? Deep red slices with a hole in the middle, packed in a glass jar? Well, my dad took the family to K&W Cafeteria, and there was a whole tray of my favorites, so I thought. My brother gave me a peculiar look when I asked the lady to load me up… You guessed it, they were beets — bluck! gross! nasty! (at least to a six year old!) and I haven’t had any sort of contact with a beet since. (The experience ruined candied apples for me too.)
But your photo of beet greens is beautiful, and I love Swiss Chard, so perhaps I’ll plant some. I may even roast one, but no promises that I’ll try more than one bite…
Beautiful, I love beets too, just on their own with butter! My fallfest salad contribution is a favorite I first had in Paris.
http://dejavucook.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/monsieur's-salade-of-carrots-walnuts-and-bleu-cheese
Great info on beets! A few years ago, I grew the Bull’s Blood beet (although mine were much redder than your picture – the colder it gets, the redder the foliage?) in a mixed winter container on my front porch. They were planted with ornamental kale (the fancy cut leaved variety) a dwarf Alberta spruce (1 gal size) and some English Ivy to spill over the sides. The effect was marvelous and it looked good from mid November all the way until the first week of March, when I changed the containers out. The striking red foliage of the Bull’s Blood beet really made the combination “pop!”
I love beets! I canned a small batch of pickled beets over Labor Day weekend that I’m trying to resist ~ saving them for salads in the dead of winter! But I’m with you, Margaret, roasted beets are simply the best!
I love beets but haven’t had a good experience roasting them on my own…
My Fall Fest Salad is a Fall Salad with Apples, Walnuts, and Stilton
http://rachelsbite.blogspot.com/2010/10/fall-salad-with-apples-walnuts-and.html
Welcome, Rachel. If they don’t seem to work, try the Pyrex pan and put a little water in and cover it, or wrap them individually in foil. I find them basically indestructible and just toss them in the oven in the Pyrex baking pan and forget them. The very small ones are harder to time, I think — they can cook too fast and be overdone. Thanks for the salad. Stilton!
Yum yum yum!!!
Yummm… love, love, love beets and am totally perplexed why, with so many fans here, the U.S. at large still hasn’t embraced them! Nevermind. WE know what they’re missing. And, yes… with goatcheese and some sort of nut is fabulous, but feta… oh feta, how I love thee with greens, little edamame gems, and long but thin slivers of earthy beets. I like them every which way but for some strange reason running them thinly through a mandolin or turning them into matchsticks… well, it just appeals to me.
Beets and Avocados are two of my favourites in a salad.. and a bountiful sprinkling of roasted almonds , if I am feeling industrious :-)
I grew golden beets this year but have yet to harvest them. I wonder if they’ll taste and different than red beets? I like them best in my mother’s Polish beet soup with a sliced hard boiled egg garnish.
Beets me why I don’t have a beet recipe. I think others here have beeten me to the punch. It’s late, I’m beet. But I do love garden fresh beets (minus the corny puns here).
i love beets and this salad goods fantastic. I love Fall Fest and had so much fun with Summer Fest. Here’s this weeks post from me http://www.ingredientsinc.net/2010/10/fall-fest-fall-salad-black-eyed-pea-salad-over-arugula/
Roasted beets….cut up, drizzled with olive oil, perhaps seasoned lightly…roasted until
almost carmelized. Delicious with other roasted vegetables such as cauliflower, carrots, green onions, potatoes, zucchini, peppers. Also delicious in a salad. We
like to add the beets when they are still warm but it is just as yummy if they are not.
Not roasted or cooked, but cut into those long thin strings to create a curly bunch on top of the salad, along with carrots cut the same way…beautiful to look at and a tasty addition
to your salad. I have a tool that does this long thin string but can’t recall what it is
called. Good for parmesan and other hard cheese, too.
Wow, lots of hungry people out there …
Quick and easy fare:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Oil a baking sheet (or two) with your favorite oil. We have found that olive oil works fine and does not smoke too much at that high temp.
Slice home grown potatoes into 1/4 inch slices (thickness varies on your preference – try a variety of thicknesses)
Do the same with beets
While you are at it, throw in some carrots and other root veggies or squash.
Drizzle more oil on top with salt, pepper, and other favorite flavorings.
Bake for 20 minutes or so.
Take them out and let cool a bit (if you can wait that long).
If you are fortunate, you have some pesto and feta nearby to garnish the veggies.
Eat!
Good with most anything and very filling!
Two comments:
1. I really enjoy roasted beets served out of the oven with goat cheese and cracked black pepper.
2. Beets have been a popular salad ingredient the last few years.
Welcome, Miloandnutella. Nice to “meet” you, a fellow beet-lover. Hope we will hear from you again soon.
I love beets and they’re a great detox food for the liver. Thanks for the recipe. I’ve suggested them grated on salads for the The Healthy Junkie Community Cleanse that begins on October 18th. Check out the blog and post at: http://thehealthyjunkie.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/meal-suggestions-for-cleanse/
One of my favorite salads at one of my favorite resteraunts is a beet salad. Delicious.
Welcome, Laura. Definitely a vitamin-packed food. Love them. And thanks for the link and info. See you soon!
There is a wonderful recipe for beets with garlic and pasta in a cookbook by Michele Sciccolone called A Fresh Taste of Italy–not a recent book but one with many intriguing, delicious recipes. My copy has a photo of this recipe on the book jacket, which drew me to it. I have not made it many times, because my crowd is on the other side of the “beet divide” from me, but it was delicious!
Please try out my harvest orzo salad for a healthy and hearty fall entertaining dish: http://kitchenjourneys.com/2010/10/12/harvest-orzo-salad/
Welcome, Briana. Looks delicious. Hope to see you again soon, and thanks.
I like beets roasted too-especially the golden ones. My husband who says beets taste like dirt can actually tolerate the gold ones. I like them with lots of oranges, orange juice vinegrette and feta.
Welcome, M. I haven’t tried orange juice and feta, but will on my next batch — thank you. I prefer the earthier taste of the red ones to the golden, but you’re right: sometimes even non-beet lovers will dare eat the yellow ones. See you soon.
I love them slow-roasted in their skins, but you can also peel, grate and eat them *raw*–dressed with vinaigrette (toss separately, unless you want your whole salad pink) atop mixed fall greens, maybe some raw grated celery root too, and apples…ricotta salata or something blue and crumbly tastes great on this.
I think to some people beets do actually taste “like dirt”….I prefer “earthy”.
Hello, Claiborne — another beet lover! Apparently the nutrients when eaten raw are so much greater, so that’s a good idea nutritionally, too. And earthy it is! :)
Claiborne! That’s what I was going to contribute: a whole pile of shredded raw beets [peeled first, holding them while wearing rubber or latex gloves]. I shred an equal amount of carrots in with them, too, tossing very lightly to avoid the pinkness, and then dress with balsamic vinaigrette. Walnuts on top.
By the way, the shredder I use is a 30-40-50s era flat grater with curved ends that hooks on the edge of a bowl [yay for tag sales!]. I find it gives me the most control and ease and I can get that last bit before the tops and my fingers get raked.
This week I was introduced to a raw butternut squash salad made with peeled, cubed squash that is then chopped in a food processor to a coarse texture. Now I’m thinking of adding or substituting shredded raw butternut to the above equation.
My mouth is watering…
I love beets although I know they are not a crowd pleaser generally speaking. I grew up having drinking cold beet borscht with slices of beets in it, topped by sour cream (very Russian.) I roast them, peel them and use them in salads – luscious with goat cheese. I also roast other vegetables and toss the cubed roasted beets with them (usually brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes.) Yum.
Ever have beets on pizza? I had the most amazing wood-fired grill pizza paired with a yummy Italian Sangiovese-Cab. On the pizza: roasted beets ( red and yellow), thinly sliced red onion, pears, pignoli, and gorgonzola. OMG…I’m going back for more.
We planted beets, in a raised bed, that somehow never grew. I wonder if a ground hog would eat them? The last two years, we grew plenty of beets and loved them. Strange indeed. I love them roasted as well, but will have to buy them at a greenmarket. :(
A confession from many years ago. I was living in Sweden and a friend gave me a home grown beet . I did not know what it was or how to cook it. The answer was, bake, boil, or mash it, with a bit of salt and pepper. Wow. I did boil it, I think, and loved it.
I make a borsht using a pressure cooker, with microwaved wonderful savory cabbage. What a modern take on great old world food!