Another bountiful basket
I hope you all had extra bags in your vehicles to handle it all! The kids ate the crab apples on the way home, until their tummies were full. The beans mix, topped off what I had picked at home. They were all blanched and frozen together. Same with the peas. Tomatoes and cucumber all eaten up in a day or two. Just left with the hard-core vegetables.
One evening I roasted broccoli in the oven with some olive oil, garlic, seasoning, drizzled with some balsamic vinegar. Roasting vegetables is my favourite way to cook them. Such a flexible way to use up an over supply of veggies and each night you roast them, just change the seasoning and you have something completely different.
How about them beets!
We picked a couple of golden beets instead of the traditional red/purple beet. We had the opportunity to try white beets last year and absolutely loved them. I would say the golden beet falls in between the white and red beet for taste. Not as strong, earthy flavour as the red beet, but stronger than the white beet. If you like beets, but the flavour of the red beet is too much, I suggest trying the golden or white. It’s always a pleasure to try a new veggie. I found a really great, simple recipe for cooking up beets quickly.
Peel your beets, then slice them – thickness is up to you. In a frying pan with a lid, melt a tablespoon or two of butter (more than two or three beets equals more butter), a clove or two of minced garlic. When the butter has melted, add the beets. Cover and simmer, until slightly tender. Then add some white wine, about 1/4 of a cup, more or less. The type of wine doesn’t seem to matter. The only thing that matters is that you like the wine. If you don’t like the wine, I wouldn’t use it for this recipe.
At this point, you can add chopped Swiss chard or the beet tops. Stir and simmer until tender or firmness you prefer. Here is the recipe that inspired my simple version. The real version is stepped up a notch to make a complete meal, French Peasant Beets.
I ended up getting a bag of beets from my Aunt, so I needed more recipes. Another delicious recipe that I found was for Unbeetable Chocolate Cake. I found that this took a bit longer than what they specify for time, but well worth it. This chocolate cake went over divine and because it is so moist, it seemed to stay fresh a couple days longer than most other cakes. And you are serving dessert with veggies in it! How great is that!
Here’s another great recipe to use up your beets and potatoes, Oven Roasted Beets and Potatoes. And I used a Corningware casserole dish to cook this and added more cooking time so the beets and potatoes were cooked all the way through. They ended up crunchy on the top and tender in the middle. A great recipe for a family meal on Sunday evenings!
Here are a couple more beet recipes I hope to try in the near future: Beet Lemonade from Joy the Baker and Refrigerator Pickled Beets from Health Starts in the Kitchen.
Remember, all these recipes and more are pinned on my Pinterest page, A Spoonful of Local. Enjoy!
