First off, let me tell you, my kitchen smells delicious right now.
I just finished roasting some beets.
It’s a complete garden dinner tonight: baby carrots, spaghetti squash and beets are on the menu. I’m taking the carrots raw. I baked the spaghetti squash in halves with butter and brown sugar and the beets, of course, I roasted!
Beets are very easy to deal with and they’re about one of the very most beautiful things a garden can grow, in my humble opinion.
Here’s how to roast these gems:
1. Remove the tip of the root and the greens from the body of the beets.
2. Pop them in a lidded casserole dish with a drizzle of olive oil and bake at 350F. Smaller beets will roast completely in about 25 minutes and the fresher the beet the quicker it will cook. If you’re roasting biggies, check them as you go with a fork POKE POKE.
3. When your beets are finished, pull them from the oven. When they have cooled enough to handle, pick them up, one at a time, run them under cold water and rub them with your hands. The skin will peel right off leaving a delicious, smooth beet meat behind.
4. Dice these babies up or chop them into chunks and enjoy them alone, on a salad, or juggle with them. Just kidding about the juggling.
I prefer to take mine with a side of plain old goat cheese.
It’s pure deliciosity.
Seriously people. Seriously.
Best summer dinner. Ever.
Garden fresh.
Cultivated with love!
Tell me, how do you like your beets?
And if you are already a lover of beets, gimmie a yee haw!
Happy eating, you skinny birds.
xx
P
Yummers!! A perfect summertime meal.
Yee HAW!! I've loved beets since I was a child. My grandmother and mum prepared them in a classic quick-pickle style: white vinegar, sugar, onions, salt. I couldn't ever get enough.
I think they are quite nice also drizzled with olive oil while still warm and sprinkled with fresh parsley and salt. Alternatively, a salad of mixed greens, perfectly grilled asparagus, walnuts, beets, goat cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette is lovely.
I take my roasted beets any way I can get 'em, but my favorite is chopped up with big chunks of avocado and gorgonzola cheese, drizzled with sweet onion dijon dressing. It's amazingly delicious and worth every second of prep time.
…I should have planted more beets.
I just finished dinner, but I want second supper now.
love beets. and you.
and myself, i'm getting less skinny by the day – you should see this middle section of mine!!
xoxo
I like to make beet soup with chavroux goat cheese and thyme. Somehow though the beets never get quite soft enough to be easily pureed without my small kitchen looking like a slaughter scene – a light spray of pureed beet all over the walls…
This makes me think of Jitterbug Perfume which I am re reading right now and of course am loving every second of it 🙂
Borsht. With lemon juice, beet tops, and sour cream. I'm all set to convert my new husband this summer. Wish me luck.
Ahhh beets, beetalicious (no not really a word, except when referring to beets) bodacious, bountiful and down right beetastic (yep, made that one up too)…I like mine marinated and sauteed with baby spinach, toasted walnuts and then topped with goat cheese….ah scrumdelabeeticious! ok enough beety words…tee hee feeling funny tonight!
My roommate makes a dish with beets and bacon and spinach over couscous… it's freakin amazing.
My mom always grew beets in the garden. She would cook them but I never liked them and I still don't.
But what I LOVED was the beet greens. She would steam them like spinach and put a little bacon in the pot. YUMMY, boy were those taste. So everyone ate the beets and I ate the greens. No waste.
Beautiful beets..they are so yummy indeed!
If you have a juicer, juice those babies!! They are so sweet & perfecT..mixed with a juiced apple!! Oh my!!
<3 n' huGs!
I like my beets on SOMEONE else's plate! 🙂
I too take mine with a side of goat cheese, and the ultimate salad of roasted beets is this, in my opinion:
1. sliced roasted beets
2. PLENTY of goat cheese
3. micro greens (regular greens can be substituted) topped with a touch of truffle oil (decadent!)
4. drizzle of mustard vinaigrette (whole grain mustard, olive oil, sherry vinegar, fresh garlic, salt and pepper – my go to vinaigrette).
5. a sprinkling of chopped roasted almonds or pecans, if you so please.
Yum! It's been so hot about all I care to eat is garden fresh vegetation…thankfully it is plentiful around here 🙂
i'm sad to say: i've NEVER had a beet.
not once.
perhaps someday… when i have a plot of land with a garden a beet shall grow (because i'll plant it)
… and i shall eat said beet 🙂
I love beets when someone else prepares them…maybe it's my turn to try! Dinner tonight!
YEE HaWWWWWWW!!
I love me a roasted beet and I LOVE, I mean LOVE beets with goat cheese!! I usually add a small bit of roasted chicken (sorry Rhonda) too. So delicious!
i love borsht. beets are awesome.
Heeee-HAWWWW! I love beets- try juicin' beets, apples and GINGER! I love roasted beets, bbq'd beets and they way it turns my pee pink! tee-hee!
This is the first summer I've roasted beets and so refreshing! Beets and feta for me or on top of a bit of romaine and a few cashews or almonds.
I make a vinagrette: olive oil, rice vinegar, dijon, honey and whatever beet juice is in the foil after roasting.
Oh – Udi's bread toasted with slices of beets and feta and sprouts and all grilled, i.e. a grilled beet, feta, sprouts!
Also my first summer to roast cauliflower – that goes well with cool beets too!
I don't know why I didn't know about all of this roasting before???
This is a late weight-in (completely unrelated to beets), but I haven't been able to sign in to comment for ages so please excuse my digression…
WRITE A BOOK.
Your writing, to me, is the literary equivalent of being in a certain downtown dress shop I know of, where the textures and visuals and all-around beauty are so much, sometimes I have to close my eyes and steady myself before I can continue.
Both overwhelm the senses in the most delightful way.
Your beets look delicious…I ate a lot of beets, slow kiln baked, when I was little, and borscht…nowadays a lot less because I am influenced by my midwesterner half who had a beetless childhood…I keep buying them and throwing them away…I like the new beet dish a friend made, baked in oven with carrots and butter..I think I would prefer it with goat cheese though…the color is what gets me excited, pH dependent!
xoxo
I'm just back from the dentist, all of these comments would make me smile but I haven't any control over my lips at the moment — they're still frozen.
There are some fantastic FANTASTIC beet recipes here, and salad combinations (!!!!!), and so darn much beet love — except for darling Kerin. Don't worry my girl, it just means there's more for us!!!!!!!!
Amy, I'm on it.
Thanks for the encouragement!
And now a toast:
To the summer gardens that fill our hearts and our stomachs! May your beets never stop coming and may your tomatoes sing a sunshine song! *clink*
MLJ: I agree. Their color is fantastic…..positively fantastic!
HEEE-HAAWW?!?!! haha! of course I meant Yeee-Hawww! but it's all good :^)
I saw that. I liked your take on it:)
love love love beets! we've been plucking them from our garden for the past few months now, and I enjoy them raw, sliced into thin strips and mixed into a yummy salad w/ goat cheese, red onion, cucumber, and sunflower seeds. yum yum! and yeeeee-haw! I will definitely have to try baking our beets! Thanks for the tips Plume!
Beets are like giant gems. I love pickled beets & roasted beets. Chopped beets in a salad with orange segments & purple onions, dressed with an orange & raspberry vinaigrette. Yum!!
Pam
Looove beets! I usually just roast them with some EVOO & S&P, time to try them w/goat cheese…sounds like a match made in heaven 🙂
The first time I tried beets…Pink pee…freaked out & called my mom the next day …Hahahaha 🙂
Yeah. The pink pee is the cherry on top!
THANK YOU, J, and everyone who contributed beeteatways. What a gift! I LOVE beets and cherish the fact that they're so nutritious, but would never have thought of all these ways of enjoying them. …Hmmm, haven't had borscht in ages; must make.
:)))
D
OK, ever since I read this post I have been wanting to try roasted beets. Growing up, I loved them because my Dad and I would eat them cold on our salads, or just as a side dish, and no one else in the family really liked them, so it was one of our things. But I had never had them roasted.
Bought some from a local farm Wednesday, roasted them last night with olive oil and black pepper and salt. Oh my, who knew such a simple dish could be so wonderful!
Thanks so much for sharing your recipe!