Beet Chips, Take Three!

As you may know, I have been trying to make a good baked beet chip. For attempt #1, my beet chips were not greased up enough and stuck to the pan. For attempt #2, my beet chips were greased up too much and were limp and oily. For attempt #3 (this week's attempt, left), I just Pam-sprayed the pan and Pam-sprayed the beets and baked them at a higher temperature (400 degrees) for 20 minutes. This worked well, as the beets were neither too dry nor too oily, and some of them even had a chip-like crunch. But they weren't that great! Maybe beet chips and me are not meant to be. Then again, I wondered if the only way to make an acceptable chip-like beet would be to deep-fry it. I tried that (results top right), but those weren't that great either. Willie reminded me that not all products of the natural world were meant to be manipulated by humans into crunchy snacks. After four tries at making beet chips, I agree.

Kale Salad with Baked Beets, Walnuts, and Creamy Goat Cheese (and Steak!)

This is a hearty, earthy, winter-y salad! It comes from the foodvergnuegen blog. I added leftover flank steak to it. The dressing is garlicky good!

Ingredients:

1 bunch curly k ale (about 6 leaves), stalks removed and torn into pieces

4 small beets, roasted or steamed, peeled and cut into wedges

8 walnut halves, toasted and broken into bits

1-2 oz creamy goat's cheese, cut into bite-sized pieces

handful of assorted sprouts, rinsed (Adrienne's note: Me no likey sprouts. Omit!)

For the dressing:

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 small garlic clove, pressed

1/2 tsp good mustard

1/2 tsp salt

fresh pepper

Directions:

Put all dressing ingredients into a jar with a lid. Close and shake well. Pour over kale, toss, cover, and marinate at room temperature for an hour or longer in the fridge. When you are ready to serve, add beets, sprouts, nuts, and cheese. Enjoy!

Golden Beet Soup

This recipe comes from epicurious.

Ingredients:

6 tbsp pareve margarine (Adrienne's note: I just used butter)

9 2 1/2-inch diameter golden beets, peeled, cut into half-inch cubes (8-9 cups), green tops reserved (Adrienne's note: my beets didn't come with green tops this week)

4 1/2 cups chopped onions

4 tsp minced, peeled fresh garlic

1 tbsp finely grated lemon peel

6 cups (or more) low salt chicken broth

2-3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Directions:

Melt margarine in a large pot over medium heat. Add beets, onion, ginger, and lemon peel. Cover, cook 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. (Adrienne's note: Since I already had diced roasted yellow beets, I just cooked the onion, ginger, and lemon peel and added the roasted beets in towards the end). Add six cups broth and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer, until beets are very tender, about 1 hour. (Adrienne's note: Because my beets were already cooked, I zoomed through these steps, maybe cooking all of the ingredients for a total of 15 minutes instead of an hour). Remove from heat; let stand 20 minutes.

Puree soup in blender in batches until smooth. Add 2 tbsp lemon juice to soup until smooth and thin with more broth if desired. Season with salt, pepper, and more lemon juice.

[Adrienne's note: I omitted here the additional instructions about pureeing beet greens to drizzle over the top of the soup.]

Adrienne's note: This is a good puree but kind of a boring soup. I think it might need cream or something else in it to give it a richer and silkier consistency. Without that, it's kind of like eating hot and chunky beet baby food.

Beet and Goat Cheese Salad with Pistachios

This recipe comes from Familyoven.com. We got some huge roasting roots this week, and I wanted to show off their colors! Recipe here: http://www.familyoven.com/recipe/beet-and-goat-cheese-salad-with-pistachios/54321.

Ingredients:

3 large red beets (1 2/3 lb without greens)

2 large golden beets (1 lb without greens)

1/4 cup minced shallot

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 cup pistachio oil (Adrienne's note: I used olive oil)

4 oz pistachios (Adrienne's note: I used walnuts)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Separately wrap red and golden beets tightly in double layers of foil and roast in middle of oven until tender, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Unwrap beets.

While beets are cooling slightly, whisk together shallot, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a small bowl, then add oil in a stream, whisking.

When beets are cool enough to handle, slip off and discard skins. Separately cut red and golden beets into 1/4-inch dice and put in separate bowls. Add 2 1/2 tbsp dressing to each bowl and toss to coat.

Place cookie cutter in center of 1 of 8 salad plates. Put one-eighth of red beets in cutter and pack down with your fingertips. Crumble 2 tsp goat cheese on top, then one-eighth of golden beets, packing them down. Gently lift cutter up and away from stack. Make 7 more servings in same manner. Drizzle each plate with 1 tsp dressing and scatter with some pistachios.

Toss mache with just enough remaining dressing to coat and gently mound on top of beets. Serve immediately. (Adrienne's note: In place of the mache, I used MA`O's Sassy! salad mix)

Cook's notes:

Beets can be roasted and diced 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Bring to room temperature before using.

Molded beet salad (without mache) can be assembled 45 minutes ahead and kept, covered, at cool room temperature.

Beet-Blueberry Smoothie

This recipe is adapted from one I read in the 6/6/11 issue of First magazine. All of the following ingredients are blended together:

1 1/2 cups raspberries (I used blueberries)

1/2 cup canned beets (I used my leftover roasted long beets)

1/2 cup beet juice (I couldn't find this, so I used 1 1/2 cups pomegranate juice. More juice was necessary so that the smoothie wouldn't be too thick)

1 1/2 cups vanilla yogurt (I only had one cup)

sweeten with honey

I prefer my smoothies on the loose side. You can still taste the rich earthiness of the beets amongst the sweetness of the berries.

Roasted Root Vegetables and Radishes

Look at all this color! I chopped these root vegetables into somewhat the same size and followed this recipe, from Kalyn's Kitchen, to roast these.

Ingredients:
2 large turnips (Adrienne's note: I just used all of the vegetables you see above)

1 tsbp olive oil

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

additional 1 tsp balsamic vinegar for finishing
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Peel turnip with knife and cut into pieces about 1-inch square. Whisk together 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar and toss with turnips, then spread in even layer in roasting pan. Roast turnips 25-30 minutes, or until slightly browned and softened.

Remove turnips from oven and place into serving bowl. Toss with additional 1 tsp of balsamic vinegar, season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and serve immediately.