Beets for Vitality

I love everything about beets! Bulbous roots, rich with colors, they have an energetic signature of grounding. in an inspiring and uplifting way. Eating them helps me feel rooted and clear, more open for nourishment from the rest of life.  Rich in natural sugars and high in mineral content when not grown on mineral depleted soils, they can help us balance out cravings for more extreme foods. In the home garden they are easy and beautiful and provide a few snips of leaves to eat while still growing their underground goodness. In our mild Pacific Northwest climate they can be seeded in early spring for summer eating and again in summer for fall into winter.

If you have not enjoyed eating beets, this is a food I would suggest may be because of the previous preparations. Many of us grew up with non-organic beets from cans, boiled or poorly pickled.  This has not given you an experience where the gifts of beet’s flavor and vitality had a way to shine. I suggest you try again with some of the simplest ideas I offer here.

Fall is the perfect time to enjoy beets, and you will want to keep eating them regularly through the winter as well.  At your local farmers market look for beets with their delicious tops attached, bright and unwilted. I like to choose medium sized beets, though I’m really not too picky about size. I almost always roast my beets before using them other ways, unless I’m preparing them raw. For this reason I like to choose roots fairly close in size so they will roast in the same amount of time. Little beets will roast the quickest.  Huge beets could take 2 hours to fully tenderize! I do notice that the fresher they are the quicker they cook, so though they are good keepers, storing them too long will make cooking times longer.

All the varieties of beets delight my palate. Rich purply deep reds are my all time favorites and yet some times golden beets with their more subtle flavor are just the right choice. Chioggas, with their concentric rings of  deep pink and white have a delicacy that is unexpected with their form.  When you get them home from the market cut the stems off the roots, leaving maybe an inch of stem attached to the root and store the greens in a bag in the crisper drawer and use them very soon. The roots are much less perishable.

Beet Greens

The greens can be used in any recipe which calls for their close relative chard or even most recipes which call for cooking spinach (another close but more delicate relative.) Beet greens are delicious for a quick saute with garlic for a side dish with a pinch of salt and a splash of your favorite vinegar. Please don’t throw out the stems! Chop them and add to the pan with the garlic two minutes ahead of the chopped greens. A  few quick stirs of the greens and watch for their color to brighten. As soon as they are bright green and wilted, remove them from the hot pan and add the splash of vinegar. Cooking greens just long enough and removing from the heat is the key to best flavor. Cooked too long and they quickly lose appeal and nutrients a well. Organic coconut oil is great choice for this saute but lately I’ve been loving to use butter. Cooking your greens in a little bit of fat makes their nutrients more accessible. For years I used extra virgin olive oil but I’m less and less wanting to heat this delicate oil, using it instead as a raw addition at the end. Alternately ou can easily water sauté these greens and add your olive oil as a dressing with the splash of vinegar after cooking. Skip the pinch of salt and choose umeboshi vinegar for serious yum factor.

Raw Beets

Raw beets are fantastic to add to juice. Alone as a juice it is too strong and can detoxify your body at a rate to stress your liver but mixed with carrot and ginger, perhaps apple, celery and parsley,  it's deliciously yummy and a great health blood and liver cleanser. Raw shreds are great additions to most any green salad. Keep in mind the staining quality of the red flesh though and don't wear your favorite white shirt when you grate or juice beets! In another post I will include a recipe for Passion Slaw, my beet and red cabbage based slaw with an Asian inspired dressing. This season though, I want the soothing nourishment of roasted beets.

Roasting beets 

Scrub the roots well but do not peel. Trim the stalks away from the root with one chop, without discarding much of the actual root. The long root can be trimmed but it is not necessary to remove it altogether.
A lot of folks recommend wrapping the beets in Aluminum foil for roasting. Though I’m sure this works, I prefer not to cook in aluminum or to support the very toxic process of aluminum mining so aluminum foil is not something I keep in my kitchen. I prefer reuseable options.
I love to roast beets in my dutch oven. It’s an old heavy cast iron with a heavy lid. I’ve also used other roasting/baking dishes of pyrex or corning ware but always with a close fitting lid. 400 degree oven is my preference, but if you have something else in the oven at a lower temp and you want ot roast beets too then just be prepared to roast them longer. 
Roast your medium sized beets for about 45 minutes to an hour. I hesitate to say specific time because it is so variable with size and age of the roots. The simplest way to figure it is that they are done when a fork goes in without resistance. The longer they roast the sweeter they will be, as the sugar carmelizes. Sometimes I speed the process up by putting some water in the dutch oven to steam/roast them. Sometimes I roast them and only add a little water when they close to done. Water is not necessary.
A fun variation I occasionally do is to peel a whole yellow onion and score it in a grid pattern cutting 80% through the bulb and place it in the middle of the whole beets in the roasting pot. It will turn pink and carmelize into an amazing pink onion chrysanthemum in the roasting pot. Finish it with balsamic or fig vinegar and there’s a little taste of heaven for you!
The clean up from this roasting is much easier if you remove the beets when they are done and add water to soften the baked on sugars in your cooking vessel before they cool and harden! If you don't do this you will have some serious scrubbing to do.

 The skins of the roasted beets slip off easily. I like to roast more than I can eat in a meal and keep them whole in a container in the fridge to add to various dishes or on the side for days to come.  Simple slice these beauties hot or cold and dress with a splash of Balsamic vinegar and enjoy.
A bed of raw greens especially arugula, topped with sliced or cubed roasted beets, a crumble of feta  or sliced hard boiled egg and a few toasted nuts is an awesome fall/winter lunch salad.
I enjoy a slab of roasted beet on a yolky fried egg, or even in quesadillas.

Roasted beets become ingredients in some other more complex dishes, both sweet and savory. I'll include two here. This Ricotta Beet pie is amazingly pink and super delicious. The Chocolate Beet Cake is my favorite dark moist chocolate cake ever. Beets were the original color in Red Velvet cake, though this recipe is much darker than that!

Savory Ricotta Beet Pie

Nut crust :
2 cups hazelnuts blended to a meal
¼ cup brown rice flour
½ cup water
½ tsp salt

Filling:
½ pound whole milk ricotta
½ cup yogurt or whipping cream
2 medium roasted beets

1 large leek cleaned sliced thin
1 small head of radicchio, sliced thin
2T olive oil
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 handful of  dry dulse, shredded with scissors
2 eggs
 ½ tsp salt (if you can find smoked salt use this, it’s amazing)
black pepper to taste

Mix crust ingredients and pat into a buttered glass 9"pie plate. Set aside.

Saute thinly sliced leeks in olive oil and remove half from pan., setting aside. Add thinly sliced radicchio and sauté until wilted. Add 1T balsamic vinegar and remove from heat and add  chopped dulse.  Set aside.

In a food processor blend roasted beets and set aside plain cooked leeks with the ricotta. Remove from processor and mix in heavy cream and 2 beaten eggs. Add salt and pepper.

Put ¾ the veggie mix into the pie crust. Pour on the filling. Top with the remaining veggie shreds. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 60 minutes. The top will begin to crack and the center gets firm.

Let this cool a bit to set before cutting.  It is also delicious cold.

Chocolate Beet Cake

1  13 oz. can  full fat coconut milk
4  small or 3 medium roasted beets, skins removed after roasting
1 ½ cup sugar
1T vanilla
¾ cup baking cocoa
3  well beaten eggs
1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup almond meal
1 cup oat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp sea salt

Butter and flour a 9” x 13” baking pan or 2-9” round pans.  You can use circles of parchment in cut to fit the bottom of the round pans for easy removal. Preheat the oven to 375° 

Mix the  all the dry indredients and set aside.
Blend the coconut milk, beets and sugar in the food processor until smooth.
Remove from the food processor and add the vanilla and beaten eggs. (Resist the temptation to add the eggs into the food processor with the metal cutting blade!) mix well.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir only enough to moisten all the flours.
Pour into pans and bake 25-35 minutes or until a skewer comes clean. Cool thoroughly before removing from pans.

 When cool dust with powdered sugar, or frost with this or another chocolate frosting. Chocolate rose glaze is amazing on this also. If you have made round cakes a middle layer of a berry jam is a special treat.

Chocolate frosting

¾ cup butter, softened
1 ¼ cup powdered sugar

Cream these, set aside.
 
1 cup milk, or cream
¼ cup brown rice flour
½ cup cocoa powder

Combine these in a heavy bottom sauce pan and stir constantly with a whisk to over medium heat to thicken until it almost comes to a boil.  Remove from heat and place in a bowl set in a bowl of ice cubes to cool it, yet continue to stir constantly. When cool stir in the butter sugar mixture to the chocolate and milk mixture. 

Celebrating the Lunar Eclipse with Chocolate Chestnut Pear Torte

Tonight the moon came into her fullness, as she does in cycle, every 29 days.  Historically, and for so long, we humans lived with much more awareness of this cycle of light and dark, less insulated by our buildings and our busy-ness. Some humans still do. This awareness of cycles kept our senses tuned, in these animal bodies we inhabit. I think the disconnection from our animal senses causes all kinds of disruption. Perhaps this is why the increased “lunacy” of human behaviors that come out under the full moon.  

I live in a building, tiny as it is, and also fall prey to the modern dilemma of feeling like there are often not enough hours in a day for all that needs doing. I like to create small rituals for myself, even with my food choices, to remind me of my connection to the cycles of the season, and the light and dark. I think the full moon is a great time to celebrate the fullness of life.  Sharing dessert is one simple way to do this. Dessert is not an everyday thing for me. For a few years recently I marked each full moon making a cream pie. The flavor varied each month for this “Moon Pie” based on the season and what was ripe.  The full moon highlights what is ripe! I will post another time with this recipe and inspirations for variations.

Tonight’s full moon eclipsed, falling into the shadow the earth cast on the sun’s light the moon is reflecting. I think full moon eclipses call for dark chocolate! I’ve been very excited about the sweet chestnuts that I’ve been gathering everyday from a few neighborhood trees. A few minutes of gathering keeps me in competition with the squirrels who seem to love them too. Oven roasting them makes my tiny cabin smell so good and they’re delicious to nibble.  I wanted to experiment with a chocolate flourless torte using these.  Pears are also perfect right now and two perfectly ripe red ones sitting on my counter called to be used as well.

Here’s what I came up with:

(Dairy free, flourless) Chocolate Chestnut Pear Torte

2 full cups chestnuts (roasted and shelled as below)
13 oz can  full fat coconut milk
½ cup baking cocoa
1 cup sugar
1T cognac (optional but delicious)
6 eggs
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
¼ tsp salt
2 ripe pears

 Preheat oven 375 degrees

Score the chestnuts with a serrated knife, making a small “x” on the rounded side of each. Place in a saucepan of boiling water for 10 minutes to simmer. Remove from the boiling bath with a slotted spoon or mesh strainer and place on a shallow baking tray in a single layer.  Roast these in the oven for about 20 minutes. Remove them from the oven and put in a bowl with a towel or cloth napkin over it to allow them to steam as they cool. This will make the shells easier to remove.

While the chestnuts are roasting prepare your springform pan. I used my 10 ½” diameter pan. Butter and flour the pan. I use a dusting of brown rice flour. You could use coconut oil and a circle of parchment in the bottom if you wish to remove the finished torte from the bottom of the pan (or wish to keep the recipe dairy and flour free.)

When they are almost cool remove chestnuts from their shells and place in food processor with metal blade, pulse to grind into a coarse meal. Some small chunks of chestnut are okay. Add cocoa powder, sugar, coconut milk and cognac if you’re using it, blend until mostly smooth before transferring mixture into mixing bowl.

Separate egg yolks from whites and mix egg yolks into batter in the mixing bowl. Add Cream of Tartar and salt to egg whites in a clean separate bowl and beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Carefully fold whites into batter. Chop two ripe pears and place in bottom of the prepared springform pan. Pour batter over the pears.
Bake in the center of your oven until top begins to crack slightly and knife comes out clean 45-55 minutes.
The lovely dome shape will naturally settle as it cools. Please do not cut until cool! Use a clean butter knife to slide around the outside edge before removing the springform ring.

This cake is like a sweet chocolate cloud with moist pockets of pear.  It needs no glaze, though I put a little sprig of mint in the knife hole where I had tested for doneness. A calendula or dark purple pansy would be lovely too.

Ode to parsnips

I love parsnips! I feel they are a very underutilized but delicious vegetable. My appreciation is at its peak in the winter, after the rest of the garden has grown soggy from frost, when there's no sign above ground, but when you know where they are........yum, so sweet! Rather like their relation the carrot with a flavor more complex.....

In my last garden (and hopefully  in my new garden!) parsnips had naturalized. That is to say they went wild. Every year I allow a few beauties to go to seed, and to fully ripen those seeds. They were huge, topping out at 6 to 7 ft. When the seed ripened I collected a bunch but I also fairy planted plenty more. That's what I call it when you take a stalk of ripened seeds and pretend it is your magic wand....Well, its not really pretending....food plants magically appear in your path! The food quality has not diminished, though I do have to thin plants. That's okay with me though, I'd rather eat the baby parsnip thinnings that to till and hoe the garden patch!

Try them in any dish calling for carrots. For maximum enjoyment avoid old woody parsnips and old limp ones that have travelled too far and lived in the fridge too long.

If you want a vegan dish using parsnips I recommend oven roasting them with onions (parsnips and onions definitely complement each other!) Simply drizzle with olive oil , salt and pepper and bake until very tender. Fresh rosemary is a nice addition here as well.

Baking root veggies until the sugars are caramelizing makes for melt in your mouth deliciousness.

This is a very simple dish that is warming and richly satisfying on a winter night!


Parsnips Au Gratin

6-8 medium sized parsnips
2 small onions
1 ½ cups milk
1 T butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
fresh ground pepper
1 T fresh rosemary leaves
top with ½ cup grated mild cheese

I like to roll cut my parsnips to make irregularly shaped chunks. If you cut them too small they will cook too quickly. Slice the onions into crescent shapes. These will flavor this dish but melt away to be almost unidentifiable in the finished dish.
Put the chopped veggies in a baking dish, pour the milk over the veggies. Top with the butter cut into smaller chunks. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper and fresh rosemary leaves.
Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Top with cheese and bake 15 minutes more.