Thursday, 3rd of June 2010 at 10:36:42 PM Last week I bought some lovely beets at the farmer’s market, and made a by-now familiar dish with them, which my husband and I enjoyed very much. My children, however, were very put off and refused to touch it. That’s actually sort of unusual for my kids, so I went ahead and asked my readers where they stand on beets, just to find out if everyone’s reaction is either love or hate. The answers were interesting, and made me realize there was a learning opportunity ahoy.
How can you not be intrigued by these pretty little babies?
I actually hadn’t known that. Greens are very big here in the south, but I wasn’t raised here and they’re not something I ever cook. (We eat a lot of spinach and chard, but generally either raw or in smoothies.) The gentleman was kind enough to explain to me how to sautee them, and suggested I dress them only with a bit of salt, pepper, and nutritional yeast. “That’s how my kids like ‘em,” he said. Okay, then.
The technical term for this is 'a whole mess of greens.'
So the first thing I learned about beet greens is that they are DIRTY. It seemed like we washed them and rinsed them and spun them forever before they appeared to be free of dirt. I thought chard was hard to clean, but this was worse because I boneheadedly chopped the greens before I remembered to wash them. Oops. Once washed, though, they did exactly what I expected them to do, which is to say that I heaped them up into my cast iron…
Hey, where's the rest of it??
… they promptly cooked down from what had looked like a giant bowl of greens to what looked like half a serving of decaying seaweed. Yum!
I tasted it while it cooked. I had tried to treat it the same way as I have chard on the few occasions when I’ve bothered to sautee it, which is to say that I did the leaves and a fair portion of the stems. Biiiiiig mistake. The stems are bitter. Really bitter. Yeccch. The leaves were pretty good, though.
I mean, I thought they were.
One child did wander into the kitchen while I was cooking to lovingly inquire, “What smells?”
So.
Like candy, but with more vitamins.
So what was the verdict?
I ate both beets and greens. I was not wild about the greens, but I would try them again without the stems, I think. I may have a slight preference for the chioggias over regular beets, but that may just because I think the stripes are pretty.
My husband ate both, but I don’t think he liked the greens. Also, he prefers conventional beets.
My daughter ate her beets and asked for seconds. She also said, “These are good, why didn’t you tell me?” and I didn’t even smack her, so that was good.
My son ate a small piece of beet but politely declined more. I’d been sure he would love the greens and he said, “Do I have to eat these? They taste kind of… ummm… well… terrible.” So.
The whole experience may have given me a bit more knowledge, but I also think I gained a few more wrinkles.
And speaking of wrinkles (see what I did there?), I am very busy trying to pack for a cruise. A cruise where there is a dress code for dinner. So a friend pointed out this awesome piece on packing to me, and I have since switched from folding my clothes to rolling them into weird little bundles. Pro: More is fitting in the suitcase. Con: I strongly suspect I will spend the entire cruise looking like I just rolled out from under my bed. We shall see.
There you go. Who else is going to give you beets and packing tips all in the same post? Never say I never gave you anything, people.
Dude, while I have come to know and love the Mighty Beet, greens — any greens — are of the devil. I may have to turn in my “Southern” card for admitting that (although, lately, there are more times than not when I’m ready to turn in my South Carolinian card with a quickness, jes’ sayin’) but I have tried and tried and I cannot stand them. I don’t care how they’re prepared. My mother-in-law has tried countless recipes in an effort to tempt me and I just can’t do it. But I feel I can say that because I always TRY, and I always finish my helping. I just takes great moral fortitude to get it done.
Sometime I boil the greens and mix them (in small doses) into potato salad.
I’ve also sauteed them and dressed them with vinegar and veggie bacon crumbles. That was pretty yummy, for the grownups anyway.
Ah, Mir. You made me snort with “I strongly suspect I will spend the entire cruise looking like I just rolled out from under my bed.” You know we will expect a full report!
I like my beet greens steamed, with a little butter, salt and cider vinegar added. Not so much with the stems though, you’re right.
Yeah, dude, you gotta lose the stems. I actually really love beet greens. They are a horrible bitch to clean, though, but once you get ‘em cleaned and de-stemmed? Yum.
Those beets are beYOUteeful. I wonder if I can find them around here?
Golden beets are my favorite (though I’m a beet-lover in general)!
On the cruise we took in April, there were NO irons/ironing boards. If you wanted unwrinkled clothes, you had to send them to the ship’s laundry and pay! My husband swears that the $2 I spent to have someone else iron my multi-sectioned and many-pleated button-down shirt was totally worth it. He’s right, but it still ticked me off that we didn’t have the option. And all of my casual clothes had that lived-in look for the week.
I’d never eaten beet greens until my daughter cooked this for us: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2009/02/farfalle_with_golden_beets_beet_greens_and_pine_nuts. It was amazing
I don’t know if you’re still avoiding gluten but if so, and if you don’t like gluten-free pasta, it would probably be good with brown rice.
I love beets! Passionately and I always have, even as a child. I hate cooked greens — spinach, poke, chard, kale, etc. So there you go. And just so I can look like even more of a two-year-old, I also hate mushrooms.
I did the rolling-of-clothes thing on my last trip (just got home Saturday! Wahoo!), as I read that a few weeks back. It worked like a charm and things were less wrinkled than they were when I folded them and crammed things in. We never check anything, and I fit enough clothes for over a week in the suitcase (not including what I was wearing for travel): two jeans, two casual pants, one dress pants, four t-shirts, six “nice” shirts, undies, three bras, socks, two pullovers in case it was cold, swimming suit (and my suit is actually a tankini top and a full short with the swim brief stitched in, so it isn’t a tiny thing), an extra pair of shoes, all my toiletries, and pajama pants and top. I was amazed when we got to our final destination two days later and everything was fine!
Let us know how your packing goes.
Beet greens sauted with fresh minced garlic (or scapes) are a hit at my house.