EAT YOUR BEETS
Beets can be so much more than part of the ubiquitous spinach-and-goat-cheese salad that they’ve become synonymous with in the last few years. Here’s what I like to make with them. —Ellise Pierce
BEET HUMMUS
Wrap a large beet in aluminum foil and roast it in a 400°F oven until cooked through. Cool, peel, and add to your blender or food processor with a container of store-bought or homemade hummus. Purée until smooth.
GRATED BEETS AND CARROTS
Roast 2 beets (as in Beet Hummus). Once cooled and peeled, grate the beets. Grate an equal amount of raw carrots. Make a sherry vinaigrette (¼ cup sherry vinegar, 1 teaspoon Dijon, 1 chopped shallot, sea salt, pepper, and ½ cup olive oil). Add fresh dill. Toss.
BABY KALE, BEETS AND BLACK BEAN SALAD
Put a couple of big handfuls of baby kale in a salad bowl. Dice 1 cooked beet (roasted and peeled as in Beet Hummus) and toss this in. Add about 1 cup of black beans (drained and rinsed if using canned) and some crumbled feta. Pour on some red wine vinaigrette (same as above but swap out red wine vinegar for sherry vinegar). Toss.
BEETS, EGG, AND QUINOA
Roast 2 large beets (see Beet Hummus), let cool. Peel, dice, and put in a bowl. Hard boil 2 eggs. Chop and add to the beets. Add about 1 cup cooked quinoa to the beets and egg. Drizzle some olive oil and balsamic on top and toss. Taste for seasonings.
FLATBREAD WITH BEETS AND SPINACH
Prepare 1 beet, as in Beet Hummus. Peel and dice. In a medium skillet with a little olive oil, cook a bag of baby spinach just until it wilts. Add grated nutmeg and a pinch of cayenne. Put the spinach on a flatbread (store-bought is fine), add the diced beets, and sprinkle with goat cheese crumbles. Bake in a hot oven (450°F or hotter) until the flatbread is toasty and the cheese melts. Slice and eat.
Daniel Cunningham, Horticulturist with Texas A&M AgriLife's Water University program. His primary focus is a holistic approach to landscaping and food production systems. Cunningham specializes in Texas native plants and trees, vegetable gardening, edible landscaping, rainwater harvesting and is passionate about utilizing landscapes as habitat for benecial wildlife. For more gardening advice om Daniel, tune in to NBC DFW (Channel 5) on Sunday mornings or ask @TxPlantGuy on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
