So in honor of finally making it to my local green market, I decided to pick up a vegetable I’d never prepared before – but love – beets.
Apparently they’re one of those “power” foods. Here’s why:
- high in vitamin C, potassium, niacin, pantothenic acid, and B-6.
- Raw beets are high in folates
- low in calories
- contain phytonutrients which provide antioxidants and help inflammation
- recent studies have shown regularly consuming them can shrink tumors
- some great other facts found here
- Also their greens have great nutrition too! (next step for me will be figuring out what to do with those…)
So since I’m new to cooking beets I decided to go easy!
- I cut off the tops of the beets, coated with olive oil and tossed into the oven at 425 for 40 minutes or until tender. (I had no idea what that meant, so I poked mine with a knife and it went in easily.)
- Let cool, rub off skin (I used latex gloves. Don’t need red hands at my shoot tomorrow…)
- and chop into cubes. Voila! From there I’ve seen recipes saying to splash with lemon juice or toss in some goat cheese or feta. Have fun with it. (yeah I really just said to have fun with beets…)
- Ps – it’s jack russell approved.
yum! I love beets/beetroot but always bought it canned.. must try the real thing
Honestly it didn’t taste a ton different plane but it was still fun to do and is do it again.
Now that you (and the jack russell) have been the guinea pigs, I can try fresh beets myself! I, too, confess to only having enjoyed the canned kind.
I also haven’t done enough with beets. Thanks for giving us an easy way to cook them.
Love fresh beets, eat them everyday for lunch! Have them plain steamed, love their natural sweetness.
I didn’t know you could do that! How long do you steam them for?
About 40 minutes if you use a steamer and roughly 15 minutes if you use a pressure cooker.
Thanks! I’ll have to give it a try. It’s been so hot – it’d be nice not to have to heat up the oven.
Thanks for stopping by my blog. Like your site. Nice to see some accurate nutrition information.
But does your dog really eat beets??? My dog never touched a vegetable in her life — and she is 15
haha he really loved them! He loves chick peas, carrots and almonds too!