Three Beet Recipes
I enjoy beets. Beets can make food a bright, natural pinkish red. I once used beet juice to color icing on a birthday cake – it was beautiful, and no one except my daughter and I knew how we got that lovely shade of pink. Here are two delicious ways to prepare beets, and then I threw in a bonus “beet soda” to cool you off on a hot summer day. Hope you enjoy these beet recipes.
Lemon Beet Salad
An easy classic way to prepare beets.
Ingredients:
- 3 beets
- 1 lemon
- salt and pepper to taste
- first cold pressed olive oil
- fresh parsley for garnish
Cover the beets in a saucepan with water, and cook until the beets are tender (use a fork to test). It usually takes about an hour to cook the beets. Remove the beets from the beet juice (you can use the beet juice to make beet soda as described in the bottom recipe). Peel the skin off the beets. Chop into bite-sized slices. Sprinkle with sea salt, olive oil, pepper and a fresh lemon juice. Garnish with parsley, cilantro, basil or whatever fresh green herb you have available. Tastes nice at room temperature.
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Fermented Sliced Beets
You have to make these a week in advance, but then you have tasty pickled beets to serve for several meals.
Ingredients:
- 3 beets
- 1 Tbsp. sea salt
- water to cover
Wash beets carefully. While still raw (no cooking in this recipe), chop in half or quarters and then into thin slices. Put the beets in a glass jar. Add a tablespoon of sea salt. Cover with water. To weigh down the beets and make sure the brine covers them, I use a baby food jar. Cover the glass jar with a cloth and a rubber band. In a few days, it will begin to ferment (you will see small bubbles on top). You can taste the beets as you go along. In about a week, store them in the refrigerator. Serve at room temperature.
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Beet Soda
Save the beet juice from either of the above recipes. Add seltzer, maybe a twist of lemon or lime, maybe a cube of ice, and enjoy!
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Do you cook with beets? What are your favorite beet recipes?
Lorri says
Nice recipes! I like the sound of the beet salad. The soda sounds nice, too.
Leora says
It's all delicious in my book! But I find the fermented ones easier to prepare and tastier. That's just my opinion, though.
Hannah says
Do the beets become pink when fermented? I ate something that tasted like beets (in a salad) except the slices were pink.
Nice sounding recipes!
Leora says
Hannah, mine stay the exact same color. I suppose if you fermented white radish (daikon?) along with beets, the white radish might turn pink from a bit of beet juice. I've cooked radishes with beets and gotten pink.
Ramblingwoods says
Oh.... I am going to try the first one.....looks really good.... Michelle
Leora says
Michelle, and of course, it's good for you, too. :-)
Becc says
Just in time for my new eating regime trying to "fix" me. It says I can eat plenty of beets.
The best place for me though will always be on a hamburger (or do you call them sloppy joe's - better remember that one before we hit Vegas).
Leora says
Beets are good! Fermented beets are great! Hamburgers are different than sloppy joes - hamburger is the meat in a patty, sloppy joes has the meat all mashed up.
Lorraine Reguly says
I like beets with cottage cheese. I like how it turns pink on the plate when these two foods touch each other. Maybe I'm a bit weird for liking that, but not too many foods react this way!
Leora says
Oh, that's why I put beets in my own personal chicken soup! Because my kids won't eat borscht, but I love it. So I compromise by making my own.
I once made a birthday cake icing with beet juice. The kids didn't know (it was a "secret" between my daughter and me).
Lorraine Reguly says
That's awesome!
I'll have to remember that trick. ;)
I like borscht, too. Without beans. My grandma use to make it all the time, in a huge pot. My mom doesn't make it very often, and neither do I. I'm not much of a cook unless I have a recipe. I always add the secret ingredient of love, though. LOL
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