Beets take close second place on the list of my favorite vegetables, just behind carrots. I do really love them. It warms me to think of them. Their bright beautiful color, the earthiness and sweetness they release simultaneously, the way they bleed all over your hands and stain your clothes. I just love them!
RECIPES
BEETS, CELERY, APPLE & GINGER JUICE
SALAD OF HEIRLOOM BEETS, SMOKED EEL, BRESAOLA, BLOOD ORANGE & BITTER LEAVES
FOIL-ROASTED BIG BEETS WITH RICOTTA & MINT
Beets are a veg I was brought up with. My Grandad Tom had them all through his garden, planted in between his roses, practically anywhere he could fit them in. I remember him pulling up humungous beets that he’d simply chop into quarters or roast whole and serve with a little bit of vinegar. Another of his favorite recipes was red beets and red cabbage pickle. He’d shred them both and transfer them into clean jars. Then he’d boil some malt vinegar, brown sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon to make a pickling liquid and pour it over the top of the grated veggies. He’d seal them up and store these jars of delight all over his house. I remember them in rows in his cupboards, and the pickles were a beautiful thing to eat.
I’ve had great success over the years with growing beets, along with carrots and radishes, and they are a very satisfying plant to cultivate. I think this may have something to do with the fact that I find them so aesthetically pleasing. Even the beet seed itself is very beautiful—it almost looks like a clove.
They say you can hand sow all year round, but I’ve found in the height of summer the middle stalk of the beet tends to try and flower early, which transmits to the root and the beets will go quite woody. If you sow in late summer or autumn, they tend to do better as they are slower growing. But it’s in spring they grow best. In spring they are just delicious,
Growing your own has become a lot more interesting over the past few years because of all the different heritage (heirloom) varieties that have become available. There’s Bull’s Blood which is a deep red and Candy Stripe, which, as the name suggests, looks just like a lolly or sweet, with pink and white stripes. They are both so beautiful to look at. Then there are golden beets, which are becoming more common to the point where you can sometimes buy them in the big chain supermarkets. Another lovely heirloom variety is Cylindra, which is a longer, thinner style than the usual round beet. They add so much vibrant color to a dish.
I think the Candy Stripe or golds are best served raw to preserve their color. Just thinly slice or julienne them. However, if you have some lovely baby beets in red or gold, for a quick and easy pickle, boil them in water with wine, vinegar, salt and peppercorns added. For red beets, use red wine and red wine vinegar, and for golden beets, use white wine and white or chardonnay vinegar.
The rule of thumb that I follow with cooking any vegetables is that if it grows below the ground (for example potatoes, beets or carrot), then start the vegetables in a pot with salted cold water—don’t drop into already boiling water. This ensures they will cook evenly all the way through. Also you don’t need to peel your beets prior to cooking All you need to do to prepare them is remove all but about ½ inch of the stalk with a sharp knife and wash them thoroughly as they can hold quite a bit of grit in their stalks and leaves. Boil until tender (you should be able to insert and remove the tip of a knife easily into the beet), then leave them to sit in the cooking water for a few minutes until cooled slightly. Next, with gloved hands if you like, peel away the skin with your fingers. If they’re cooked through, the skin should come away very easily and pretty much in one piece.
The great and frugal thing about beets is that you can use every bit of it. The stalk is beautiful sautéed. You can wash and use the small leaves in a salad and, for the larger ones, chop and wilt and use as you would spinach. In fact, when beets were first domesticated around the Mediterranean and Middle East, they were used mostly medicinally and as a dye. For many hundreds of years, it was only the leaves that were eaten until some bright spark decided to give the root a try.
Now it is a classic and much loved vegetable throughout most of the world, with the biggest beet-consuming regions being Britain, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. Where would the Russians be without their national dish of borscht? It is such a beautiful, warming rosy soup. The beet’s bold flavor goes wonderfully well with oily fish like kingfish or salmon and also fleshy fish like cod. It’s just dynamite with meat and offal, and it can be the star of a dish all on its own. It particularly loves to be paired with the heat of horseradish or mustard leaf, which complements and enhances its natural sweetness. And it loves to act as a foil to the creamy richness of an earthy goat cheese or feta. All of these are classic flavor combinations, and my personal favorite is a slice of pickled beet on crusty white bread with a slice of cold ham.
Here’s a little tip for you to avoid staining your chopping boards bright pink: wrap them in plastic wrap before grating or peeling your beets. When you’re done, just remove the plastic and tip the mess straight into the garbage. Clever, hey?
BEETS, CELERY, APPLE & GINGER JUICE
MAKES 28 FLUID OUNCES, ENOUGH FOR TWO NICE BIG GLASSES
Being a bacon-and-egg-sandwich man in the morning, I have to say that this freshly juiced beverage is bloody awesome alongside said sandwich. It awakens all the senses and vitalizes you for the day ahead. Not that it happens regularly to me but it is also a great hangover cure.
½ CUP CHOPPED FRESH GINGER
2 LARGE BEETS
4 SMALL STICKS CELERY
3 SMALL CARROTS
3 APPLES
10 ICE CUBES
The best thing about this recipe is that there is no peeling. Leave everything as is, just cut into sizes that fit the mouth of your electric juicer. Juice them down and pour the liquid into glasses filled with the ice. I do prefer it cold on ice but it isn’t necessary. Drink straight away.
SALAD OF HEIRLOOM BEETS, SMOKED EEL, BRESAOLA, BLOOD ORANGE & BITTER LEAVES
SERVES 4 AS AN ENTRÉE
This is such a wonderful autumnal dish. The eels are at their height as they have fattened up throughout summer and stored their excess fat for the long cold winter. The contrast of the bitter leaves, earthiness of the beets and fresh citrussy acid of the blood orange leaves your palate coated with lots of wonderful flavors and textures. Freshly grated horseradish over the top is a great finishing touch.
2 BUNCHES HEIRLOOM BEETS (GOLDEN, DETROIT, CANDY STRIPE
OR BULL’S BLOOD)
1 LARGE SMOKED EEL, SKINNED AND FILLETED
1 LARGE BLOOD ORANGE, SEGMENTED AND JUICE RESERVED
⅔ CUP EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL
SEA SALT AND FRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER
8 SLICES BRESAOLA (TRY TO GET WAGYU AS IT ADDS A BEAUTIFUL FAT ELEMENT)
1 WHITE BELGIAN ENDIVE, LEAVES PICKED
1 SMALL RED RADICCHIO, LEAVES PICKED AND TORN
1 YELLOW FRISÉE, HEART ONLY, LEAVES PICKED
3 TABLESPOONS CRÈME FRAÎCHE
2 TABLESPOONS SALTED BABY CAPERS, RINSED
Preheat the oven to 350°F
Take 4 beets, wash the skin well and thinly slice on a mandoline. Place in a bowl of cold water until ready to serve.
Fill a 8-cup capacity saucepan with water, add some salt and the remaining beets, bring to a boil and cook for 7–11 minutes or until tender. Leave to cool in the cooking liquid.
Portion each fillet of smoked eel into 5 pieces and set aside on a baking sheet.
Whisk the blood orange juice and olive oil together in a bowl and season.
Once the beets have cooled, peel, cut in half and place in a large bowl. Add the bresaola, Belgian endive and radicchio. Add the frisée, blood orange segments and dress with a little of the dressing.
Put the tray of smoked eel into the oven and cook for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, place a little crème fraîche in the center of each serving plate, arrange the cooked beet mixture on the plate, dollop over the rest of the crème fraîche and scatter over the capers. Drain the sliced raw beets and arrange on the plate. Add the smoked eel and drizzle over a little more dressing to serve.
FOIL-ROASTED BIG BEETS WITH RICOTTA & MINT
SERVES 4 AS A SIDE
I love beets. This is just one of the-many ways to enjoy it, simply done but so tasty. We really should celebrate vegetables cooked without fuss much more.
4 BEETS, WASHED AND TRIMMED
OLIVE OIL, FOR DRIZZLING
SEA SALT AND FRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER
1 GENEROUS TABLESPOON RED WINE VINEGAR
1 CUP FRESH RICOTTA, CRUMBLED
1 LARGE PINCH OF MINT LEAVES, TORN
Preheat the oven to 425°F.
Cut 2 sheets of foil and lay them across each other to make a cross. Put one beet in the middle, drizzle with olive oil, season with sale and pepper, then wrap up the beet to completely seal. Repeat with the remaining beets. Place on a baking sheet and roast for 1 hour. Insert a skewer through a bulbs to test to see if they’re cooked.
Once done, carefully transfer onto a serving plate, unwrap, cut an “X” into the tops and push down like a jacket potato. Leave to cool for a few minutes.
Just before serving, drizzle over the vinegar, top with the ricotta and mint and season with a little more salt and pepper. I suggest scooping the beet flesh out without eating the skin.
