Expirements in Produce - Beets

Today we picked up our second "Harvest Box" from Sun Gold Farm, our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture farm) that we have purchased a share from.

I am excited to get a large variety of fruits and veggies, while they are in season, from a local farm that is organic and sustainable, and supporting a local farm.

We are trying new things.
And we are trying old things.

for example, beets!

New - never served to my family since we have been a family. I'm not totally sure if my husband has ever consumed a beet before, at least not intentionally.
Old- My parents grew beets in their garden when I was a child. I remember eating them, mostly roasted with butter and salt.

I was nervous about trying them again. It wasn't something I loved as a child, I remember eating them, but not loving it. i was also nervous about putting them on the table as a required part of dinner.

We really don't tolerate picky-ness in our kids.... if it is on their plate, they are expected to eat it, sometimes it just takes longer than usual, so new and less kid friendly foods are approached with caution.

My sister has some experience with local farm harvests and CSA farms, as well as hanging with a bunch of veggies and vegans, so I asked her last night if she had some suggestions. This was her response (names changed to protect misfits):

Beets! How can you not LOVE beets? I can't remember if (MAN) did anything particularly special with them. We like to roast them with a bit of olive oil and rosemary -- they're good to roast with other veggies like potatoes, carrots, brussel sprouts, etc. Sometimes we just wrap 'em in tin foil and bake them (cutting them into a couple pieces if they're large). I like to chop up left-over beets and put them in a salad. And, just the other day, I made a wrap with hummus, left-over beets, cheese, salad greens, and a drizzle of balsalmic -- YUM! One time (MAN) did make a beet soup, but I don't remember that being as good as beets themselves are. I think he found the recipe on epicurious.com ... there are lots of great beet recipes there. They're a fantastic color (FRIEND has used their juice to make paper towel art) and they're very sweet for a vegetable, so if the kids know what's good for them, they should love 'em!

I hope your CSA helps you re-discover the greatness of beets.

xoxox
L-beet lover

I told her she should start her own blog and call it ilovebeets.blogspot.com (site name still available....)

So, I searched and this is what I found: Grilled Flank Steak with Sauteed Beet Greens and Creamy Horseradish Beets which did use the rosemary like Liz said, and I think it's a good paring. The only alterations we made were that I used Flat Iron Steak vs Flank steak because it was in the freezer already. I also would recommend cutting down on the horseradish in the cream sauce if you have kids, a little goes a long way and can be too spicy for the kids. The sauce, after sitting turns a bright, almost fluorescent fuscia color. It reminds me of one of the imaginary foods from the food-fight scene in the movie Hook. Hannah wanted some mostly because the color was intriguing.

The kids ate it. Shane ate it. I enjoyed it. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the sauteed greens. I used butter instead of the oil and salt. I also ate most of the greens by myself, HAPPILY! I think I'll do something with the leftover creamy beets like Liz suggested with hummus and greens.

So! What do you do with beets? Do you like them? I'd love to hear some other ideas.