Farm Fresh Recipe: Fresh Beet Salad

I don’t know about you but I’ve always found myself uninterested in eating beets. I don’t know why, truthfully! Maybe something about the smell or about how people always talk about them tasting like “dirt” (wash them better!), but they didn’t appeal to me one bit! Until I grew them myself and made them myself that is.

This summer, as we’ve talked about several times in other posts, we really tried to grow food that would nourish us while also challenging some of those preconceived ideas about vegetables – Thus, BEETS!

I didn’t even know how to cook or prepare beets. I literally googled “DO YOU PEEL BEETS?” and “HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN BEETS ARE COOKED?”. In truth, I think both Sylas and I were overwhelmed at the though of GROWING beets and even more overwhelmed at the thought of actually eating them. Let me tell you – If they’re prepared correctly and you put in the effort, they’re DELICIOUS and easy!

We started our beets with many of our other vegetables and I was honestly concerned they weren’t going to thrive at all. They were whispy like our lettuce and initially didn’t have much of a bulb (I checked by lightly checking the roots without damaging the plant). I learned later that you should trim the beet top to help the root be nourished and that you can actually eat the beet greens! So, we did that and we ended up with quite a few nice sized beets. We did supplement them with a couple of store bought as well because we wanted to have leftovers for this recipe and not all of our beets were ready, but it was fantastic!

How to cook beets

Beets are really easy, especially when you’re making them to add to a meal like a salad or to roast with other vegetables. You need to wash them well because remember that dirty flavour I mentioned earlier? That was my understanding of beets before I made them myself too. Use an abrasive brush that you use only for produce or similar and run under hot water. Scrub them for several minutes until the outside skin looks clean.

Then it’s as simple as slicing the beets into halves or quarters depending on the size and roasting or boiling them until fork tender, 20-40minutes depending on the size of your beets.

Also be careful, beet juice is bright pink and it does stain!

Beet and Walnut Salad: A recipe

Serves 4 as a side, 2 as a main (add protein). This is a variation on a recipe I found on all recipes here.

Ingredients

• 6 small beets
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 300G spring mix greens
• 1/2 cup sugar free orange juice concentrate
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Goat cheese to taste, large crumbles

Preparation

1. Scrub your beets. Really, SCRUB THEM. You don’t want to eat dirt.
2. Quarter the beets and cover in a sauce pan with water.
3. Bring the water to a rolling boil on high and reduce to medium
4. Boil for 25-35 minutes until fork tender
5. While the beets are boiling, add the walnuts, maple syrup and a pinch of salt to a frying pan. Caramelize on medium heat until thickened and then remove from heat and let cool
6. Remove beets from boiling water using slotted spoon or strainer and run under cold water
7. Chop beets into 1/2 inch pieces (smaller is better)
8. Add 75g of greens to each plate
9. Top with even portions of walnuts and beets and crumble even portion of goat cheese over top
10. Add orange juice concentrate, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper to a bowl and whisk
11. Drizzle dressing on each plate to taste

That’s it, enjoy!