This salad is meant to be made with grated, freshly roasted beets. I didn't have any fresh beets and didn't really have the energy to roast, peel, and grate them anyway. So, instead, I used tinned, sliced beets and just julienned them for the salad. I'm very pleased with how this worked out and would absolutely do it again.

Polish Cold Beet Salad

Slightly adapted from Everyday Healthy Recipes

Ingredients

• 1 (450g) can sliced beetroot, julienned
• 1 apple, peeled and grated
• 1 small red onion, minced¹
• 2 dill pickles, grated²
• 2-3 tsp. oil
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes before serving.
3. Adjust seasoning to taste.

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¹ I didn't have any red onion on hand, so I just used some dried onion flakes in my salad. ^Back
2 Since my beets were already pickled, I just used two small/baby dills in my salad. If you're using unpickled beets, then I'd recommend using 3-4 baby dills or 2 larger ones. ^Back

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.

We don't tend to eat a lot of beets. The Kidlet isn't really a fan and I find them kind of annoying to prepare. And with so many other veggies that we do all like, it just never really seems worth getting the beets. I do like them though. So I was keen to find a recipe to use them up when we got a few in our last produce basket by accident.

This recipe is specifically written for "baby" beets. And the ones in our produce basket were the perfect size. Unfortunately, there were also only a handful of them. So TF had to go out and get us a few more. And the grocery store didn't have any small beets. So we had to make due with much larger ones. Cutting them down into smaller pieces seemed to work well enough though.

Roasted Beet Salad with Orange Vinaigrette and Goat Cheese

Slightly adapted from Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 450g baby beets (3-5cm diameter), any colour
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
• 1 orange, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1/4 c. walnuts, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. orange juice
• 1 bunch watercress, arugula, or spring mix
• 60g fresh goat cheese, crumbled

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
2. Cut the leaves off of the beets, leaving ~2cm of the stem in tact.
3. Rinse and scrub very well.
4. Place in a baking dish, toss with 1 Tbsp. of the oil, and season with salt and pepper.
5. Roast beets at 200°C (400°F) for ~25 minutes.
6. Add orange and chopped walnuts, drizzle with another Tbsp. of oil, and continue roasting until beets are very tender (~10 minutes longer).
7. Meanwhile, combine the red wine and orange juice and whisk in the remaining 1 Tbsp. of oil.
8. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
9. When the beets are done, allow them to cool and then remove the skins.
10. Pour the vinaigrette over them and toss to coat.
11. Place a handful of greens on each plate and top with some of the beet mixutre.
12. Sprinkle with goat cheese and serve.

As written this wants ricotta salata, but as usual we didn't have that and we did have feta, so feta it is.

Roasted Beets with Arugula and Feta

Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan (p. 19)

Ingredients

• large beets totaling about 500g
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp fresh orange juice
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• ¼ tsp mustard
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• 2 C (~60g) baby arugula
• 130-150g feta, crumbled

Directions

1. Trim roots and stems from beets.
2. Arrange beets on a baking tray and brush with 1½ tbsp oil.
3. Bake at 350° until fork-tender, turning every half hour, about 60-90 minutes depending on beet size.
4. Remove and let cool.
5. Meanwhile, whisk together remaining oil, juices, mustard, salt, and pepper in a large bowl.
6. Peel beets and cut into thin wedges.
7. Add beets to dressing and turn gently until coated.
8. Add arugula and feta and toss to combine. Serve.

This salad has a few variants, but we made the raspberries and blue cheese version; the others are documented below. Not a favourite, but I'd eat it again.

Marinated Beet Salad

Cook's Country October/November 2016, by Katie Leaird (p.17)

Ingredients

• 1½ lb whole beets, trimmed
• ½ C water
• ¼ C sherry vinegar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves (or ½ tsp dried)
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• 2 oranges
• 1L arugula, kale, or other greens
• ¼ C shaved romano cheese
• ½ C walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Wrap beets and water in tin foil. Roast at 400°F for 1 hour or until fork-tender.
2. Whisk together vinegar, oil, thyme, salt, and pepper in a large bowl.
3. Once beets are cool, rub gently to remove skins, then cut into 1cm wedges.
4. Add beets to bowl with dressing, toss to cover, and let stand for at least 30 minutes.
5. Divide oranges into individual wedges.
6. Add oranges, greens, cheese, and walnuts to bowl with beets and dressing, and toss to combine.

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Variations

Marinated Beet Salad with Pear and Feta

Ingredients

• 1½ lb whole beets, trimmed
• ½ C water
• ¼ C sherry vinegar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves (or ½ tsp dried)
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• 1 pear, cored and thinly sliced
• 1 L arugula, kale, or other greens
• ¾ C crumbled feta cheese
• 2 tbsp pistachios, toasted

Marinated Beet Salad with Raspberries and Blue Cheese

Ingredients

• 1½ lb whole beets, trimmed
• ½ C water
• ¼ C sherry vinegar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves (or ½ tsp dried)
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• ⅔ C raspberries
• 1 L arugula, kale, or other greens
• ¾ C crumbled blue cheese
• ½ C hazelnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped

I ended up making this salad with mixed baby greens rather than just spinach. And, as I often do with homemade salad dressings, I reduced the oil and increased the acidic component. Other than that, I stuck to the recipe. It takes a while to roast the beets, but is very straightforward other than that. I thought it would be a pain to section the oranges, but it wasn't too bad. Just make sure you have a nice, sharp knife.

Spinach Salad with Oranges and Roasted Beets

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 250g beets
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 navel or blood oranges
• 185g baby spinach

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F).
2. Wash the beets and trim off the greens.
3. Wrap in foil and roast at 190°C (375°F) until fork tender (45-60 minutes).
4. Meanwhile, add the shallot, salt, and pepper to the lemon juice and let stand for at least 30 minutes.
5. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while whisking vigorously.
6. Once tender, remove beets from oven and let stand until cool enough to handle.
7. While beets are cooling, secton the oranges: trim off both ends and then cut around the sides of the orange, following the contours, to remove the peel and pith; next cut along the membrane on both sides of each section to produce tidy, membrane-less wedges of citrus.
8. Once the beets have cooled, peel them and cut into wedges to match the size of the orange sections.
9. Place the spinach in a salad bowl and add the oranges and beets.
10. Toss with the dressing and serve.

I wanted a vegetable side to go with the spaghetti tonight. It takes a while to roast the veggies, but there's very little active time involved. Just chop and roast with a little oil, salt, and pepper. The glaze only takes about five minutes to make and just gets toss with the veggies after roasting.

Miso-Maple Glazed Root Vegetables

Slightly adapted from Woks of Life

Ingredients

• 450g carrots, cut into large chunks
• 8 medium beets, cut into thin wedges
• 2 onions, cut into wedges
• olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2-3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 2 Tbsp. miso paste
• 2 Tbsp. mirin
• 1 Tbsp. maple syrup
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 scallion, sliced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. Toss vegetables with oil, slat, and pepper.
3. Roast at 220°C for 40 minutes.
4. Melt butter over medium heat.
5. Add garlic and cook for a minute or two.
6. Stir in miso paste, mirin, maple syrup, and cinnamon and simmer for another couple minutes.
7. Toss roasted veggies with glaze and sprinkle with scallion.

Mutabal Shwandar (Beet Dip)

We got a bunch of beets in order to do easter egg dying, but we ended up using all the eggs for red cabbage experiments instead and needed to do something with the beets. This dip from Our Syria turned out to be just the thing; it's especially tasty on bread or crackers.

Mutabal Shwandar

Our Syria, p.19

Ingredients

• 4 medium beets
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 2 tbsp tahini
• 4 tbsp plain yogurt (at least)
  
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• juice of 1 lemon
• soft goat cheese to taste [optional]
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
   
2. Scrub the beets, trim them, and slice into wedges.
3. Toss with olive oil and salt and pepper.
4. Bake for 30-50 minutes, until soft enough that a sharp knife can easily be inserted through them. Remove and let cool.
5. Combine the beets, tahini, yogurt, garlic, and lemon juice in a food processor or blender, and blend. If using a blender you may need to add more olive oil and/or yogurt.
6. If using the goat cheese, crumble it into the dip and stir in.

These casunziei (basically half-moon shaped ravioli) were really tasty. The poppy seed sauce didn't really seem to complement them that well though. I think next time I might experiment with some sort of cream sauce. Maybe something with a crème fraîche base. I'm not entirely sure, but I think something with a mild tartness to it would go well.

Beet Casunziei

Slightly adapted from Great Italian Chefs

Ingredients

Pasta

• 300g pasta flour
• 3 large eggs
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 egg yolk

Filling

• 500g beets
• 1 large egg
• 1 egg white
• 100g ricotta
• salt and pepper, to taste
• breadcrumbs

Directions

Preparation

1. Combine flour, eggs, oil, and yolk to make a smooth dough.
2. Wrap up tightly and chill for at least 30 minutes.
3. Steam and peel the beets. (InstantPot works well for this: high pressure 20 minutes, 10 minute natural release.)
4. Purée the beets and place them in a fine mesh strainer to drain for 10 minutes or so.
5. Stir together beets egg, egg white, ricotta, and salt and pepper.
6. Add enough breadcrumbs to create a smooth but not runny filling (~1/4 c. give-or-take).

Assembly

1. Take ~1/3 of the dough and roll it out very thin.
2. Cut out as many 7cm circles as possible.
3. Place a scant tsp. of filling on each circle.
4. Fold over to create a half moon shape and press edges to seal.
5. Crimp with fork.
6. Repeat with remaining 2/3 of dough.
7. Combine dough scraps and roll out again to make more casunziei.

Storage and Cooking

1. If not cooking immediately, place casunziei in a single layer on a parchment-lined plate or baking sheet and freeze. (You will need to work in batches.)
2. Once frozen, they can be transferred to a Ziploc bag and kept in the freezer for a few months.
3. To cook, bring a pot of salted water to a rolling boil, add pasta, and cook until it floats (3-5 minutes depending on whether or not you're cooking from frozen).

Serving Suggestions

1. The original recipe suggests sautéeing the cooked pasta in some butter with poppy seeds and then topping with grated Parmesan. This is okay, but doesn't seem like an ideal complement.
2. Next time I'd try crème fraîche mixed with a little olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper and then serve topped with Parmesan. Maybe add a touch of milk and/or white wine to the sauce if the consistency needs adjusting.

We still have a lot of beef left in the freezer, so I though it'd be nice to try out one of the beef tagine recipes to use up the next bit of squash. I was just planning on doing the two squash tagines, but I may have gone slightly overboard with the squash purchases, so I think there may be a third squash tagine appearing in the near future. Hopefully they're all different enough that we won't get completely sick of squash before we eat it all. Worst case, I guess I parboil and freeze some of it. But, in the meantime... Tagines!

Beef Tagine with Squash and Beets

Slightly adapted from 150 Best Tagine Recipes

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 Tbsp. ras el hanout
• 500g stewing beef, cubed or sliced
• 4 tsp. garlic paste
• 1 fresh Thai chile, chopped¹
• 1-2 slices crystallized ginger², chopped
• 4 medium beets, quartered³
• 2 c. diced squash
• 1 c. beef broth
• 2 oranges, cut into segments⁴
• 2 c. chopped kale or Swiss chard
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh cilantro or (flat-leaf) parsley

Directions

1. Add oil to tagine and heat over medium heat.
2. Add onion and ras el hanout and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add beef, garlic paste, chile, and ginger. Stir to coat beef and cook for 10 minutes.
4. Add beets, squash, and broth. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 45 minutes.
5. Add oranges and kale/chard, cover, and cook for 15 minutes.
6. Check beef for tenderness. If too tough, continue to cook for another few minutes.
7. Garnish with cilantro and serve over couscous.

NB: catalyst didn't care for the orange in this one. TF didn't object to the orange specifically, but felt that it had too much pith which ended up sort of tough and bitter. Personally, I quite liked the orange. But it appears not to have been a hit overall. I'd say I'd leave it out next time but, realistically, I'll probably just pick a different tagine entirely. So, I guess... caveat emptor orange is not for everyone.

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¹ This tagine was tasty, but I didn't find the chile came through at all. Next time I think I'll try to alternative suggested in the cookbook and use 1 dried, crushed cayenne instead. ^Back
2 The original only calls for a single slice of candied ginger. I used two slices because, historically, I have not noticed a very strong ginger presence when using candied ginger in tagines. Even with two slices, I still couldn't really taste the ginger -- and that's with extra gingery ras el hanout! I do find myself wondering if I'm using the right kind of candied ginger. I suppose next time I could try using some stem ginger (the kind the comes in thick syrup). I think the flavour of that ginger tends to be much stronger than that of crystallized ginger. But stem ginger doesn't normally come in slices (at least not that I've seen). It comes as large chunks or knobs. Since the recipes specifies "slices" of candied ginger, I figured it must want crystallized ginger. The tagine still comes out tasty, even without a strong ginger presence. If you really want to be able to taste it though I'd probably suggest either using candied stem ginger or using 1-2 slices of crystallized ginger and a tsp. or so of ginger paste. ^Back
3 I used sliced frozen beets for this. I cut them in half to make them easier to eat. So, rather than having beet quarters, I had halved beet slices. I'm sure quarters would've been fine too, but I actually quite liked the slices. ^Back
4 I decided to slice my oranges (crosswise) and then divide the slices into segments. (I liked the idea of having lots of small pieces of food rather than a few larger ones.) ^Back