Reiver's family gifted us a bunch of lovely beets out of the garden the other day, so I've been looking for a nice way to use them up. I was initially eyeing a nice roasted beet salad recipe, but it required goat cheese and I didn't want to have to go out and get yet another kind of cheese for it.

This one technically called for fontina, but I figured that I could probably get away with a mix of cheddar and mozzarella for that. And that combination does, indeed, seem to have worked out quite nicely!

The beets came out great. Reiver and I were both big fans. They tasted wonderful. The cheese was lovely. And the walnuts added just a bit of crunch on top.
The Kidlet was less of a fan, but I was kind of expecting that. She's never really cared for beets in the first place. She was a trooper and tried them anyway, but this preparation didn't jive with her any more than any of the previous beet recipes that I've tried. That's alright though. More for the rest of us!

Beet Gratin with Walnuts

Slightly adapted from Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 6 large beets, peeled and sliced
• 1-2 Tbsp. olive oil
• pepper, to taste
• 75g Cheddar cheese, grated
• 75g mozzarella cheese, grated
• 1 tsp. dried thyme (or 2 tsp. fresh)
• 3 Tbsp. heavy (35%) cream
• 1/4 c. walnuts, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F) and grease a 20cm (8") square baking dish.
2. Toss the beets with the olive oil.
3. Place ~1/4 of the beet slices in the bottom of the prepared dish, overlapping them slightly.
4. Season with a bit of pepper.
5. Combine the cheeses and the thyme and sprinkle ~1/4 of the cheese mixture over the beets.
6. Repeat the layers of beets and cheese until you run out.
7. Drizzle the cream over the last layer of cheese.
8. Sprinkle with walnuts.
9. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 45 minutes.
10. Let cool slightly before serving.