Animal Writings

Beets
If you rarely cook, it's a safe bet that you don't buy fresh beets when you're at the store. In fact, the thought may have never crossed your mind. But canned beets—that's different. Just pour them out of the can, add a few ingredients, and you have a delicious side dish that's a break from the normal routine. No chopping necessary.

Like their neighbor (in this series) the asparagus, beets are a good natural source of folic acid, which your body needs every day. And the redness of beets is almost surreal.

So let's explore a few easy beet recipes, suitable for non-cooks, starting with this one. "Harvard Beets" is a classic dish in beet lore. I'm going to show you two variations. Each one requires minimal time and effort but produces very pleasing flavors and colors on the plate.

First let me say that one of the great things about online recipes is that so many of them are accompanied by reviews—by regular people, not food critics. I recommend perusing the reviews not only to see how much people liked the recipe, but also for cooking tips, variations, and possible pitfalls (and how to prevent them). When you try an online recipe, you may want to give back to the community by adding your thoughts and advice—and kudos to the author, if applicable—in the form of a review.


Harvard Beets (According to the Linked Recipe, Above)

Here's how I did it...


• "Medium saucepan" translates to a 2-quart pot.


• Pour the liquid into the pot and gaze into its hypnotic luminescence, as though it were a volcanic pool from another world. Sorry, getting poetic on you. Use medium heat.


• It's nice that we're using plain old white vinegar. If you cook much, you'll eventually build up a collection of more high-falutin' vinegars: red wine, apple cider, rice, balsamic, and more exotic flavors. It's nice to return to plain white vinegar—the people's vinegar.


• I cut back on the sugar. I used a 1/2 cup. Really, you don't need more sugar than that. Beets are already powerfully sweet.


• I under-salted as usual. A couple quick shakes.


• Corn starch is somewhat magical in its ability to turn thin liquid into a thick sauce. Plus you can run your car on it. Kidding. Following some reviewers' suggestions, I upped the amount of corn starch to 1 1/2 tablespoons.
  
  Here's how I like to add corn starch, so that it's a smooth paste. Put the 1.5 tablespoons of corn starch into a tall measuring cup or bowl that's taller than you think you'll need. Add about the same amount of water. With a small wire whisk (preferred) or fork, vigorously mix the corn starch and water until all the corn starch is dissolved. If it's too thick to stir, add a tad more water. Then pour the mixture into your uber-red beet thing going on. (The reason for the tall cup or bowl was so nothing spilled out when we mixed the stuff inside.)


• Again following the wisdom of reviewers, let the liquid get to a full boil before lowering the heat to simmer. I lowered the heat to where the primordial sauce was still boiling steadily but mildly. Somewhere just south of medium-low.


• Add the beets. Slowly and carefully. Don't get too excited.


• Stir about every 30 seconds for the next several minutes or until the sauce is thick enough for you. About halfway between liquid and solid. In fact, it should resemble cranberry sauce. While you're doing this, you can throw a veggie burger on another pan, slightly oiled, and the buns in the toaster. Put the dinner plates on top of the toaster to warm up.


• Sidebar: After you flip the burger, put a slice of onion on top of the patty. At some stores you can even buy onion already cut up if you're really pressed for time or don't want to get a knife and cutting board dirty. Another thing you can do is: Whenever you need, say, half an onion, slice the rest of it before putting it back.


• Taking my own advice, I had a serving of beets first. I turned off the heat for the veggie burger, scooped the beet concoction onto a plate, and had a taste. Mmm! The tartness of the vinegar and the sugariness of everything else combined into a delightful sweet-and-sour glaze. So simple but so tasty.


• Barbecue sauce is also sweet and soury, so I went with that theme and put that on the burger instead of ketchup. I cut a couple of cherry tomatoes in half and added those as well, put everything on a bun, got another helping of Harvard Beets and was good to go.

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did. Let me know.


Trivia Question
Why are they called Harvard Beets? (No cheating, please)


A Variation
This is a combination of reviewers' suggestions and some improv:


• Instead of the vinegar, use 1/2 cup orange juice.


• If you can swing it, grate an orange a few times and add the "zest" (the grated peel) to the mix.


• Because orange juice is sweet, reduce the sugar to a heaping 1/3 of a cup.


• Add in a pinch of ground cloves. Not too much, just a couple small shakes. More if you really like cloves.

Basically, cook the dish like you did before. I added all the liquids, cornstarch mixture, and spices, including the grated orange peel, to the bubbling hot cauldron, lowered the heat after it boiled, and dropped in the beets. Remember to stir frequently.

The orange and cloves gave this variation a festive, wintry aroma. It was slightly milder than the vinegar version. Pleasantly sweet but with a little tang. I would probably make this around the holidays.


Mandarin-Glazed Beets
I continued the orange and red theme with this recipe. It's even quicker than the Harvard Beets: The liquid ingredients come to a boil in about a minute, and in two more minutes everything's thickened up and ready to serve.


Beet Fact
The standard beet can is 11 ounces; that's what I've been using. You can also buy small cans of beets that are 8.5 ounces.
Like one of the reviewers, I halved the recipe except for the mandarin oranges (I used a full 11-ounce can). Instead of butter, I used Smart Balance light, which I bought at my regular grocery store. That way, I'm not contributing to stealing baby calves from their mothers, killing them, killing the mothers, and grossly manipulating the mothers' bodies. It's a less violent choice than butter. It's also lower lower in overall fat than butter yet contains an ample dose of Omega-3 fatty acids. I used fresh lemon juice (since I had a lemon around), and added a touch of grated orange peel at the end. Without the orange zest and using bottled lemon juice, you could make this dish in 5 minutes.

I added the sugar, corn starch, and lemon juice to the pot as instructed, then turned the heat on to medium-low. I stirred constantly at first, to fully mix the corn starch; it reminded me of making a roux for gumbo. After that it was practically auto-pilot.

This was the mildest of the three recipes. The mandarin oranges blended beautifully with the beets, both in terms of looks and taste.


Summary
Okay, that should do it for beets for now. You may have overlooked this vegetable in the past, but hopefully in the future you'll buy them from time to time and create simple, healthy, and flavorful accompaniments to your main courses.

Health groups and dietitians across the world urge eaters to include as many colors as possible in their daily meals; the rich pigmentations of fruits and vegetables usually signify powerful disease-fighting chemicals inside. Beets, with their deep blush hues, fit well into a program of increasing color in your diet.

Labels: beets, cooking, food, vegetables