Beets ~ What to do with a lot of them in the winter

I got to spend some time with Ruth last week. She's my favorite organic farmer. That's a treat in the winter because I don't see her much.  In the spring and summer she's working her organic farm and I get to see her weekly at the farmer's market.  With a full time job, organizing a family, and a working organic farm, she doesn't have too much time to just visit.  We did a short presentation a nutrition class about organic farming and plant based eating last week.  Then we got to enjoy a vegan lunch a local restaurant.

Before she came out she told me she had lots and lots of beets and was worried about them rotting.  There are far too many for just her family.  I told her to bring some and I'd do something with them.  Last summer I dehydrated some of my beets and it worked out great.  I grind them and use them in our smoothies or just eat them like any other vegetable 'chip'.

Beets are some of the vegetables my husband didn't like too much before I got some vegan cooking training.  It's one of those vegetables like spinach, so many of us grew up with this canned over cooked version of what the spinach or beets used to be, no wonder many people don't like them.  I like to chop them and put them in our raw salads and smoothies.  When they're in season and plentiful, I usually just roast five or six and leave them in a bowl for one of us to grab.  That is one of my own motto's, 'have the good stuff handy'. 

Garden beet is very low in calories (contain only 45 kcal/100 g), and contain only small amount of fat. Its nutrition benefits come particularly from fiber, vitamins, minerals, and unique plant derived anti-oxidants. More about beets Beet Nutrition Facts.

Ruth brought out a nice big bag of large red beets, just picked the day before.  I gave a few to my friend Rachel, I made some beet chips, roasted some, pureed some and made some chocolate beet cupcakes with Kaylee.  I used them all.

Raw Butternut Squash Soup

This is a variation of the Carrot-Ginger soup in Vegan Fusion's The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw.  I had a butternut squash that I've been wanting to make into soup for a couple weeks now.  It's the last one from our garden last year.  I peeled it, chopped it, and pureed it in the blender with some filtered water to make a thick juice.  It came out very tasty and my blender on the soup setting blends it fast enough to come out steaming and warm.  It can be eaten warm or cold. It's got great flavor and fits into my green smoothie 'clean up'.

Raw Butternut Squash Soup

4 cups butternut squash puree, pure the squash with filtered water to almost a juice, a cup or more
1/4 cup cashews
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 small avocado, mashed
2 TB ginger, minced
2 tsp. Shoyu
Juice from one lemon, I used a Meyer lemon, very nice!
1/2 tsp. curry powder
1/4 tsp. dry dill
Pinch cayenne
Pinch sea salt
Pinch freshly ground black pepper

Place 1 cup butternut squash 'juice', nuts, and avocado in a blender, and blend on high speed for 20 seconds or until mixture is smooth.

Add ginger, shoyu, lemon juice, curry powder, dill, cayenne, salt, and pepper and blend on low to medium speed for 15 to 20 seconds.  Slowly adding remaining squash 'juice' through the top while blending on low.  I used the soup setting on my Blendtec which blends it for a minute and a half at high speed.  The soup warms up, but it doesn't cook. 

I used fresh beet pure, fresh beet julienne strips, a little cilantro, and chopped scallions for a garnish.

Winter Squash Soup with Roasted Beets

It's finally here, the rain, the can't see in front of your face while driving kind of rain.  I worked up north for a bit today.  It was a nice ride up towards Olympia.  The rain on the way up wasn't so bad.  It was raining, but with sunshine breaks.  On the way home was a different story, I was praying out loud for a few more sun breaks.  The rain was coming down hard and it was a busy time with huge trucks on either side of me the whole way.  Just as I'd pass one another would join me spraying more water than I needed on my windshield. I only had about a 45 minute drive on the freeway, but it seemed like longer today.

I didn't work my usual daily schedule. I had to get on the road north by noon so I ate a small salad around 11:30. I didn't plan my food well and didn't bring anything to snack on in the afternoon. I was very hungry on the way home as well.  I didn't want to stop though.  Even though I wanted to get out of the weather, it didn't seem like it was going to get any better waiting it out. I would be home soon and there's plenty of 'good' whole foods to eat there. I thought about the little winter squash that looked like little pumpkins I roasted Saturday.  I also remembered I roasted three large beets last night.  I bought them Saturday and didn't use them right away.  If I roast them, they were more likely to get eaten.  Oh I'm so glad I did.

I made it to the house around 6:15 p.m., changed my clothes and proceeded to the fridge where my roasted roots and squash were waiting.  I chopped a red onion and about three stalks of celery, sliced two small jalapenos from the garden, and minced a couple cloves of garlic.  I sauteed them all in a soup pot with about 1 tablespoon coconut oil.  I added sea salt and fresh thyme to the mixture. While they were sauteing, I took the skins off the squash and placed them in the blender and diced the roasted beets. I added about 2 cups organic soup stock and half the tender onions and celery and blended until smooth.  I poured the mixture in the soup pot and added about 2 more cups soup stock and the diced roasted beets. I let that all simmer together for about five minutes. I was pretty happy to see that dinner was ready and it was 7:00.  I think I made this soup in about 20 minutes or less. 

Roasted Beets, Greens, Millet, and Pine Nuts

I roasted some beautiful fresh organic beets today.

Then I peeled and chopped them in large pieces,

 

tossed them with some lightly steamed greens, rainbow chard, spinach, and beet greens,

caramelized onions, garlic, and red bell pepper,

and some steamed millet.  Millet is a very similar to quinoa. They are difficult to tell apart when not labeled. The quinoa is on the left, the millet on the right of this photo. (I think)  :D

I tossed all this together with some fresh lemon juice, golden balsamic vinegar, pumpkin seed oil, chopped garlic, a tablespoon of red miso, a dollop of grainy mustard, and a dash of shoyu. (no measuring involved, sorry) I also roasted about a handful of pine nuts and added the seeds of half a large pomegranate that needed a home.

We can eat this warm or cold. This will be very good alongside some beans or as a full meal all by itself.

TLT with Avocado and Fresh Beet Chips

It's hot and I'm loving it.  I welcome the sun! Here's an easy meal for a hot evening.  A TLT, a  tempeh, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. Grilled lemon pepper tempeh strips marinated in teriyaki sauce on toasted whole grain bread with avocado and garden fresh tomatoes and lettuce.  I served it with thinly sliced turnips, golden beets, and red beets from our garden.  I  called them chips and my granddaughter ate them as if they were her favorite chips.

Chocolate Beet Cake with Raspberry Frosting - Vegan

It Looks Like Summer

There were fresh raspberries as well as strawberries at the farmer's market this weekend. I found a great cake on another food blog, Vegalicious. It's made with beets and chocolate and almost has the density of a brownie. It's very moist and sweet, no one needs to know there are beets in it.  We had to cut two pieces to get just the right picture.  We didn't mind at all, the subjects of the photos were yummy.

I only made a couple substitutions. I used pure maple syrup instead of brown sugar. I used a little bit less to make up for the moisture, just a cup instead of a cup and a half. I used organic chocolate chips for dark chocolate, 1½ ounces isn't very much chocolate, but combined with the cocoa, it really did the job.I made the frosting a bit different than this recipe called for.

for the frosting:

¼ cup coconut butter
½ cup raspberries
½ seeds scraped from a vanilla bean
1 cup organic powdered sugar
about ½ tablespoon almond milk.

Celebration Salad

I've seen this salad in many vegan and whole foods cookbooks. It's a pretty simple salad of fresh carrots and beets. What am I celebrating?  The first fresh vegetables of the season and for us in the Pacific Northwest, we are celebrating sunshine today. Nice warm sunshine.

This is the way Chef Al Chase taught me to make Celebration Salad.  I grated four small to medium red beets, one golden beet I had, and four medium carrots.  To those grated vegetables, I added the juice and zest of one orange, a little flax oil, and a little chili oil, about a tablespoon each.  I added some fresh ground Celtic sea salt and a dash of cayenne pepper.  I usually use chopped parsley, but I didn't have any so I used some fresh cilantro from the garden.  Not too much, about a tablespoon and a half.  It will settle and become juicy and flavorful after chilling overnight.  This salad definitely makes me feel like summer is coming.