We love beets and I am always trying new recipes. This year I also discovered beet greens. We used to chunk these in the compost pile but now I save them and saute them up. Here are a couple of new recipes I tried out.
Spiced Beets with Beet greens
This is a variation of a Cooking light recipe.
3-4 beets with beet greens.
2 tbsp oil or coconut oil.
2 tbsp minced shallots
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 carrot diced
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp ground red pepper (I used ground peppers from my garden) Red chili pepper will do.
3 tbsp chopped cilantro
Remove greens, wash and chop Set greens aside. Boil whole beets for 30-50 minutes until tender. Peel and cut into quarters or eighths depending on how big your beet is. We are looking for bite sized pieces.
Heat a saucepan over med high heat. Add oil and 5 ingredients and cooks 2 minutes.
add next group of ingredients and cooked beets greens (see below) and cilantro.
Sauteed Beet Greens
1 tbsp oil oil
1/2 onion (I like the red onion for this) julienned
3 garlic cloves minced
Beet Greens
1 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup chicken or vegetable broth.
Heat oil in skillet. Add onion and cooks until soft, add garlic and beet greens and vinegar cook until greens have wilted add broth and cook about 5 minutes until soft
Beetnini
12 servings
This is a recipe I have found from Bon Appetit. I like the idea of the infused vodka without all the extra not so natural flavorings so I am giving it a shot. The Vodka is still in the fridge so I will let you know how it turns out.
Vodka and Syrup
6 medium beets
1 750 ml bottle vodka
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp grated peeled ginger
3/4 cup water
Assembly
3 oz fresh lemon juice
3 oz fresh lime juice
12 lemon slices
Cook the beets in boiling water until tender 40-60 minutes depending on the size of the beets. We use the Cylindra beets with are longer and do not take as long to cook. Drain, cool slightly and peel. add to a 1 1/2 qt jar. This is another use for all those saved jars. Add vodka to cover. Save the vodka bottle. Cover and chill for 5 days and up to 1 week. Strain and pour back into vodka bottle. Cover and chill.
Bring Sugar, ginger and water to boil in a saucepan stirring to dissolve the sugar. Let cook and strain out ginger. Store in another jar. Cover and Chill.
To make the cocktail
Combine 2 oz beet vodka, 1/2 oz ginger syrup, 1/4 oz each of the lemon and lime juice in a shaker filled with ice. Strain into a martini glass. float a lemon slice on top.
UPDATE: Ok the finished product was OK but I concoted another vairation that I ended up liking much better. I had grated the rind off an orange so I juiced the orance. I also had a meyer lemon so I added the juice of this instead of the lemon and lime I used in the recipe. I also substituted St Germaine for the ginger syrup. Also I topped the cocktail off with a little sparking water.
UPDATE: Ok the finished product was OK but I concoted another vairation that I ended up liking much better. I had grated the rind off an orange so I juiced the orance. I also had a meyer lemon so I added the juice of this instead of the lemon and lime I used in the recipe. I also substituted St Germaine for the ginger syrup. Also I topped the cocktail off with a little sparking water.
