My Tiny PlotBeetroot – Bolivar
I harvested my Beetroot today. They were about the size of tennis balls and the top of the Beetroots were starting to show above the soil so I thought that would be an ideal time to bring them in. I don’t want them getting woody.
I don’t grow Beetroot very often. I guess I just don’t eat that much of it. It’s a very earthy taste. Does anyone have any great suggestions on what to do with it. I’ve pickled it in the past and was thinking about making this Beetroot and Chocolate cake. It sounds good.
Grate the raw beet root and mix with an equal amount of grated carrot. Then mix in zero or more of some: grated apple, chopped onion, caraway seeds, honey, apple cider… Or just go with the plain grated beet & carrot. Might sound strange but it’s very tasty and pretty sweet.
I like baby beetroot roasted round a joint of beef. Thats if you eat meat of course.
Ovenroasted, drizzled with some good Olive oil and a little honey…yum!
Definitely give the cake a try, Gill. I’ve made this cake many times (and passed the recipe on to friends, at their request). (NB the lady who substituted some drinking chocolate to make it less rich, probably a good idea if kids are the taste testers.) The beetroot can be tasted (just) but any nay-sayers can be won round by eating the cake warm with cream or (chocolate) custard on the top. Beetroot makes a lovely soup when added to carrots and parsnips as the base veg or Stephen Shirley recommends beetroot and horseradish as a side dish. Let us know how you get on!
Easy risotto: chop an onion and soften it in butter/oil. Add grated/chopped beetroot and salt & pepper, plain rice, and cook for a few minutes. Start adding stock, about two cups per cup of rice, I think. Once the rice is cooked through, stir in some grated cheese or creme fraiche, and serve.
Good with a salad (of beet leaves?), and garlic bread.
Slice into “coins” and roast in oven with olive oil, salt, pepper. Top with goat cheese and toasted pecans (pine nuts work well also) and fall in love!
boiled served hot with a salad is our preferred way
Roasted in the oven with a little olive oil and other veg (red onion, carrots, parsnips and sweet potato are a good combination) Makes a delicious side dish with simply cooked fish or meat.
its lovely roasted!!
I normally put them in a Dutch Oven (I use my Creuset) with some balsamic vinegar and herbs (i.e. rosemary, sage) and let it sit in the oven for about 1 hour at 180 degrees C (and then leave it to cool down in the oven over night).
Then I store it in a container in the fridge and use as needed. my favorite is to sprinkle it with feta and toasted nuts, or add it to a salad with pumpkinseed oil.
Enjoy!
cake is good
Beetroot tarte tartin is delicious! Roast beets in foil with olive oil and garlic, salt and pepper in the oven until tender. When cool cut them in half and place cut side up in a flan dish closely packed in. [ I often use a mixture of beetroot and shallots left whole which looks pretty and tastes yummy! ] Pour the lovely garlicky juices over. Place puff pastry [I use bought] over the top, brush with beaten egg and bake for about half an hour until the pastry is golden and crisp. Take it out of the oven and invert it onto a large plate and sprinkle with feta, or goat’s cheese and chopped parsley or chives or coriander. It looks so pretty with the purple and white of the cheese and tastes really good.
This recipe is really easy and so delicious. Grate 300g raw beetroot, add 40g butter and 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar, then simmer with lid on for about 8 minutes or so. Season with salt and plenty of pepper.
Errrr, the best way to eat beetroot is raw!! This is the Russian way to eat it – most of my Brit friends have tried and loved it:
grate raw beetroot and a slightly less amount of cheddar, squeeze a couple of garlic cloves, add a spoon of mayo, mix everything up well, enjoy!!
:o)
Would love to hear what anyone makes of this!
Beware though – this really cleans the gut out – you might get a slight rumbling uncomfortable feeling in your tummy after eating this, followed by a complete evacuation of your gut, but on the plus side, the evacuated matter is a really nice colour!!! :o)
Full of vitamins and delicious. (the salad, not the “matter”)
Oh, and I also use freshly squeezed beetroot juice to colour frosting for cakes – makes fantastic colour, and is actually good for you.
Another tip – in Russia we used beetroot to colour Easter eggs – just chuck some slices in the pan with the eggs, bingo!
Just grate it over salad leaves – colourful and sweet. Or juice beetroot with orange and apple – lovely colour, absolutely delicious.
I suspect we should harvest our first beetroot now too as they are similarly showing above the soil. I love them pickled with a bit of chilli, and last year’s winner was beetroot, chocolate and ginger cookies – so tasty.
http://hillwards.wordpress.com/2011/08/02/beetroot-chocolate-and-ginger-cookies/
Some great recipes here, but this is a total winner: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/beetrootandmascarpon_85258
although I always sub the mascarpone for sour cream (beets and sour cream gives a polish/russian vibe to it), be prepared to need more stock than it says (as with all risotto recipes as far as I can tell) and sub the wendsleydale for soft goat’s cheese.
I’ve cooked this a bunch of times, the colour is amazing and it always goes down a storm! Mixing the grated beetroot to the stock at the start is the key.
I saw this recipe yesterday and it has all my fav ingredients and Beetroot is supposed to help your liver so all’s good. Beetroot, red onion & goat’s cheese (or feta) slice. Pre heat oven to 200C. Saute 1 chopped onion until soft and add 1 tbsp honey. Cook until caramalised. Roll out and line ready made puff pastry to fit 10 inch round tin or sheet. Cover pastry with greaseproof paper and using beans or 2ps or 1 ps blind bake pastry for about 10 mins. Remove paper and cover base with onion mixture. Dice 4 cooked beetroot and sprinkle over onions. Break chosen cheese and sprinkle over onion and beetroot mixture. Return to the oven for 10 mins or until pastry is cooked and cheese just begining to soften. Yummy :)
if you like real indian food try making this beetroot pachadi recipe. Its so different but delicious.
Alternatively my wife makes a wonderful beetroot, feta & puy lentil salad. Dressed with a simple olive oil and and balsamic dressing it is a great recipe and easy to make…just make up the quantities!
Roast with balsamic, olive oil, garlic, thyme, salt, pepper and a splash of water in something air tight (I do mine sealed in foil). Serve as a warm salad with some salad leaves and crumbled goat’s cheese. Use the garlicy balsamic as the dressing for the leaves. Serve with crusty baguette. Yum!
We boil it and then peel it and then have it on butties with cheddar cheese. Or we pickle it and have it with stew. Or grate it and mix it with grated carrot and use as a kind of coleslaw… you can put mayo in as well.
Can I just ask how you know how big they are? I harvested mine because it was pushing up out of the earth and looked a decent size, but when I pulled it out, it was only very shallow – just a couple of cms deep… how do you know when it’s a nice ball size like you see in the supermarkets? Any help would be appreciated because I’ve got more growing and don’t want to make the same mistake again.
Thanks in advance.
Wow thanks for all the recipes guys. I made the chocolate cake today which went down very well but I have lots left so I’ll try some of the salad recipes too. Thanks.
That cake is definitely worth a go! We will be making more soon.
My other half likes beetroot raw with vingegar
Roast in foil with thyme & olive oil. Serve with soured cream or creme fraiche. Delish!!
(And this is from a woman who had an unfortunate childhood experience with beetroot!)
Hi,
you could make beetroot crisps, they are delicious and children will love them, just slice very finely with a mandoline (I would not suggest to do it by hand because it’s impossible to get them thin enough and it’s essential for cooking them right), put in bowl, add some olive oil, salt and pepper, lay on a baking tray (very close to each other, they will shrink), then bake at 140, turning them after 15 minutes) until they dry up, leave to cool and they will be crunchy and very addictive!
they keep well…
We cook beetroot by wrapping them in foil, putting them on a trivet and ‘roasting’ them for 4-6 hours in the slow cooker with boiling water under the trivet. It uses much less electricity than roasting in the oven and doesn’t heat the house so much.
Peel, slice and pack into sterilised jars, then make up a raspberry jelly by using hot white vinegar instead of water and only using half the volume (most jellies are 1 pint, so use half a pint of vinegar) and pour the red hot liquid over the beetroot. Sweet, tender and delicious!
Hugh F-W has the best recipe in the world for chocolate and beetroot brownies.
Kay x
Am going to try the panfried fish with fresh beetroot salsa recipe (Good Food website) when my beetroot get pulled next week, it sounds great. And beetroot crisps really are the best crisps in the world…yes even nicer than wotsits!