Cauliflower and Beet Salad

Continuing the theme of vegetable salads, this beauty showcases the contrasting colors of beets and cauliflower. Decorative hard boiled egg and fresh sprouts up the protein without making it too heavy to eat on these warm summer evenings.

If you've only ever eaten mushy canned beets, try buying fresh beets and roasting them. It will be a revelation. They are tender yet firmly hold their shape. And they have an earthy flavor that goes beautifully with zesty lemony dressings like this one.

The cauliflower and beets are cooked separately and seasoned, then arranged together on a plate with the dressing poured over.

It's a pretty and nourishing supper. Leftovers are good the next day too.

Cauliflower and Beet Salad
3 medium beets, about 3/4 lb
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 egg
1 head of cauliflower (about 1 1/2 lbs)
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp sliced shallot
2 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp mint
radish sprouts to garnish (opt)

If your beets came with greens, cut them off and save them for a dish of wilted greens. Scrub the roots well and bake them in a 400° oven until they are tender. This will take roughly 45 minutes to an hour depending on how big the beets are. Set them aside to cool a little, then peel if desired (not necessary but maybe prettier) and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices. Toss with a couple of teaspoons each of olive oil and red wine vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Pierce the thick end of the egg lightly with a pin (so it doesn't explode) then place in a small pan of boiling water and cook 10 minutes. Drain and fill the pan with cold water to let the egg cool a little. When you can handle it, crack and peel the shell off, and dice the egg finely.

Cut the cauliflower in inch-size (or slightly larger) florets. Steam until tender, about 6-8 minutes. Put in a bowl and toss with another couple of teaspoons of olive oil and the lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.

Marinate the sliced shallot in 2 tbsp red wine vinegar in a small bowl for 5 minutes. Add the parsley, mint, and 5 tbsp olive oil. Fold in the chopped egg and again season with salt and pepper.

Arrange the beets around the edges of a platter. Pile the cauliflower in the middle. Spoon the egg dressing decoratively over the salad and scatter sprouts or more herbs decoratively.

Serves 3-4

Beet Salad with Asparagus

In warm weather, a vegetable salad makes a good dinner. Vegetables are healthy, filling and pretty to look at. They make the meal interesting, even when it's too hot to have much of an appetite.

I made this colorful salad of beets, red butter lettuce, asparagus and watercress the other night. A citrus dressing added perkiness, and I puréed one of the cooked beets to make a red dressing that I served on the side. It was both delicious and colorful. I took the leftovers for my lunch the next day. I really like meals that stretch.

Beet Salad with Asparagus
4 medium-small beets
20 spears asparagus, trimmed
3/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup chopped shallots
1/3 cup olive oil
large handful of watercress
red butter lettuce to line the plate

Scrub the beets, place in a steamer in a large pot over medium-low heat, and steam until tender, probably about 45 minutes depending on the size of the beets. When a thin knife can pierce the center of the beets, they're cooked. Remove the steamer from the water and set aside to let them cool a little.

Cook the asparagus in a little boiling water 3-6 minutes until tender-crisp. Drain, plunge into ice water to stop the cooking, drain again and set aside.

Whisk together orange juice, vinegar and shallots. Slowly whisk in the olive oil until it's emulsified. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour half the dressing in a blender. Peel and chop one of the beets and add it to the blender. Purée into a gorgeous purple sauce. Pour into a jug.

Line a plate with the lettuce. Peel (if desired) and slice the beets and arrange around the edge of the plate. Cut the asparagus in bite-sized pieces. Toss with the watercress and some of the first dressing (the one without the beet) — enough to coat the leaves. Pile this into the center of the beets.

Drizzle the beet dressing over the salad, and serve the extra on the side.

Serves 3-4

Roasted Root Vegetables

Hunting through the fridge the other day, I found a couple of beets, a few small turnips and half a celeriac. Combined with a parsnip, carrots and some potatoes, these made a great simple dish of roasted root vegetables.

Roasting the vegetables in a covered casserole lets them steam more than blacken. The flavors blend, the olive oil, salt and pepper get absorbed, and the roots come out buttery and delectable.

Use whatever roots you have lying around. Peel (as needed) and chop enough vegetables to fill your casserole. Pieces of one inch or less are good because they cook more quickly. I always cut beets and turnips into small bite-size pieces.

Toss the vegetables in a bowl with olive oil, salt and pepper. Put them in the casserole, cover, and bake at 425°F for 30-45 minutes. The timing will depend on the size of your vegetables. They're done when they pierce easily with a knife.

Pasta with Beet Greens

The beets I'm growing in our vegetable patch have many more leaves than the ones I buy at the farmers market. In fact,  each beet has as many greens as I would usually get in a bunch of three beets.

So we've been eating a lot of beet greens. This isn't a hardship because they are sweet and versatile. I like them combined with chard or kale in a side dish of wilted greens. I've also stirred them into cooked brown rice for a simple casserole.

The other day I stirred them into pasta with garlic and olives for a quick but tasty meal.

In the past I've made this dish with chard and other greens. The beets were particularly yummy, I thought.

I used my large pasta pot with a strainer insert to cook the pasta. It took a lot of water, but it was easy to lift out the pasta and reserve the water - turned pink by the beet leaves - for watering my plants. I'm sure they appreciated the extra minerals.

Pasta with Beet Greens
1 lb beet greens (cut stems at bottom of leaves before weighing)
1 lb whole wheat penne pasta
3 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup finely chopped green olives
2 dried red hot chiles, crushed (or 1/2 tsp hot chile flakes)
salt and pepper
1/4 cup grated parmesan

Wash the beet leaves, cut coarsely and set aside.

Cook pasta in a lot of well-salted boiling water until almost tender. Add the beet leaves and cook another 2 minutes. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup water.

Meanwhile, warm olive oil in large saucepan. Fry garlic, olives, chiles, and salt and pepper to taste, until garlic is golden, about 2 minutes.

Add drained pasta with beet leaves and 1/3 cup pasta water. Cook, stirring, until well mixed and the liquid is absorbed. Add a few extra spoonfuls of cooking water if needed to make it moist and a little saucy.

Stir in the parmesan and serve.

Serves 4-6

Beet Burgers

I'm really enjoying the book Grains as Mains by Jodi Moreno and Sarah W. Caron. It combines ancient grains like quinoa and buckwheat in simple yet delicious ways. As a big fan of diversity in eating, I am always happy to find new ways to cook the grains in my pantry.

When I read their recipe for a beet and buckwheat burger, I was sure it wouldn't work. So of course I had to try it. And halfway through I thought I was right - the burgers were falling apart.

But as they cooked in the pan, they held their shape - because of the egg protein gluing them together - and they turned out crunchy and yummy, and not dry like so many veggie burgers are. Larry said this was the best use of beets ever.

I used the toasted buckwheat also called kasha. It's a deep brown color and looks like tiny pyramids. It's not related to wheat - it's actually a seed, not a grain - and is gluten-free. It also has a deep rich toasty flavor that goes well with mushrooms - I usually cook it as the grain in a mushroom pilaf - and now I know it tastes great with beets too.

I used pumpkin seeds because I love their bright green color against the red beets. The authors called for sunflower seeds. Chopped nuts would work well too, I think.

I put the buckwheat in to soak before I went to work, and cooked the burgers for dinner. Make sure to add the 8-12 hours of soaking time to your schedule when you plan to make these.

Beet Burgers
1/3 cup buckwheat
1 medium beet (4 oz)
1 shallot (about 1 1/2 oz)
2 eggs
1/3 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
2-3 tbsp vegetable oil

Place buckwheat in a bowl, add water to cover it by an inch, and let it sit 8-12 hours. It doesn't expand very much, but it does soften enough that it doesn't need cooking.

Scrub and coarsely chop the beet and the carrot. Put them in the food processor with the peeled and chopped shallot. Pulse a few times to chop finely.

Drain the buckwheat and add to the processor along with the eggs, rolled oats, salt and pumpkin seeds. Pulse a few more times until the mixture is finely chopped. It will not be holding together or looking anything like a successful burger dough.

Scoop the mixture into a bowl, cover and refrigerate about 30 minutes.

Divide it into 4 portions and pat them into 1/2 inch high patties, about 4 inches in diameter. The mixture will only loosely hold its shape. Don't be discouraged.

Warm the oil in a cast iron fry pan. It should cover the bottom.

Cook 2 burgers at a time, 4-5 minutes on each side, until crisp and browned. A little blackened is okay. The burgers will hold together when they're crispy and will flip easily.

I served them with oven-baked fries and a zesty cabbage salad.

Serves 4

Simple Beet Salad

Winter stews and grains make delicious meals, but they can be a little boring to look at on the plate — a lot of brown is involved.

The other day I whipped up this simple beet salad to add a spark of color to our dinner plates. I took the leftovers in my lunch the next day. It's a great way to get Vitamin C, potassium, beneficial fibers, and all sorts of health benefits.

It's fast to make in the food processor — grating by hand would be very messy. I suppose you could use golden beets, but where's the fun in that?

Simple Beet Salad
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp dijon mustard
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
3 medium beets, greens removed and saved for another dish

Whisk together the vinegar, lemon juice, mustard and olive oil. Season with a little salt and pepper.

I peeled the beets because the skin is grayish and I wanted a sparkly red salad. However the skin is perfectly edible, so leave it on if you like. If you do, make sure to scrub the beets well.

Either way, cut off the tops and bottoms and slice the beets to fit the feed tube of your food processor. Use the shredding disk to grate them.

Add the grated beets to the dressing. Toss to combine and serve.

Serves 4

Braised Beets

It's so easy to toss beets in the toaster oven to bake that I rarely cook them any other way.

But I recently tried pan-braising them in a little water and oil, and was so impressed I'll be doing it more often, especially in the summer when it's too hot to turn on the toaster oven.

I did peel and chop them before I cooked them, which was messy, but the red stains on my fingers wore off eventually, and the finished beets were really beautiful.

I contrasted them with an easy pistachio pesto that stayed bright green for days. I'm not sure why because it was my regular pesto recipe with pistachios instead of pine nuts. I guess the nuts helped the basil stay a bright spring green.

This dish served four and left them wanting more.

Braised Beets

2 bunches beets, roots only

2 tbsp olive oil, divided use

Scrub the roots and peel off any rough spots at the stem end. Chop into quarters (or 1/2 inch rounds if the beets are large). Place them in a heavy saucepan with 2 tbsp water and 1 tbsp oil. Place on medium-low heat and cook, covered, until tender when pierced with a knife, about 15 minutes. Add a couple of tablespoons of water if the pan is getting dry. But if they're young beets they'll release a surprising amount of water while cooking. When they are tender, toss them with the other tbsp of olive oil and a little salt and pepper. Arrange on a platter.

Pistachio Pesto

1/4 cup shelled pistachios

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup basil

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp parmesan

Toast the pistachios lightly in a heavy skillet. Pour them into the food processor and add the garlic, salt and basil. Grind coarsely. Add the oil and purée until relatively smooth. It will be a thick paste. Stir in the parmesan.

Arrange the beets on a platter and dollop the pesto on them.

Serves 4

Beans and Greens and Mushrooms

I was buying cilantro and chard at the South Central Farmers Cooperative stall at the Hollywood Farmers Market on Sunday when I noticed some beautiful burgundy leaves. I was told they were amaranth, a green that we have not eaten before. So I bought a bunch to try.

When I nibbled a leaf, I found it was surprisingly bitter. So I decided to cook it with some curly kale (for texture) and beet greens (for sweetness). I combined them with mushrooms and white beans for a simple and nutritious dinner.

You could make this recipe with any combination of greens you like. I recommend the curly kale because it bulks up the dish - it doesn't shrink quite as much as chard and other types of kale. Some arugula or rapini would be nice for flavor. And a gentle green like collards or beets is always appreciated.

I used a variety of mushrooms because I was feeling adventurous at the market. Plain creminis would be fine too, or even white mushrooms.

The white beans look pretty against the greens, but any bean can be used. If you don't feel like cooking your own, drain a 14-oz can of whatever strikes your fancy.

Beans and Greens and Mushrooms
1/3 cup dry white beans
2 tbsp olive oil
2 shallots
2 cloves garlic
1/2 lb mixed mushrooms (I used oyster, shiitake and cremini)
1 bunch curly green kale
greens from 1 bunch of beets
1 bunch purple amaranth

Cook the white beans in plenty of simmering water until tender, about 90 minutes depending on the beans. Drain and set aside. (At this point they can be refrigerated overnight if needed.)

Warm 1 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Peel and chop 1 shallot and 1 clove garlic and add to the oil. Cook, stirring, until onion is translucent and garlic is golden but not brown.

Wipe the mushrooms clean with a damp cloth. Remove the base of the stem if it's dirty, and remove woody stems from shiitakes and oyster mushrooms. Slice the mushrooms and add to the skillet with 1/4 tsp of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are brown, about 5 minutes. Remove them to a bowl and set aside.

Wash all the greens. Cut the tough stems from the kale and discard them. Slice the leaves into 1/4 inch ribbons. Cut the beet stems at the base of the leaves and discard them. Slice the leaves crosswise. Remove the stems of the amaranth and discard. Chop the leaves coarsely.

Put the skillet back on the heat. Warm 1 tbsp oil and peel and chop the other shallot and clove of garlic. Add to the pot and cook until soft. Add the curly kale, stir well, season with a little salt and pour in about 1/4 cup of water. Stir again, then cover the pot and cook for 10 minutes until the kale is wilted and cooked down a bit. Add the beet greens and amaranth, a little more salt and pepper, stir well, then cover and cook another 10 minutes until all the greens are tender.

Add the reserved mushrooms and white beans to the skillet, and cook some more until everything is warmed through. Serve immediately.

Serves 4

Beet Salad

Beets make great salads. They can be cooked ahead, refrigerated, then tossed with simple ingredients to make a colorful supper.

Here's the beet salad I made the other night.

Beet Salad
1 bunch beets
1/4 cup spring onions
3 tbsp walnut oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/4 cup walnuts, toasted
1/4 cup goat cheese
lettuce

Cut the greens from the beets and save them for another use. Scrub the roots and bake them in a covered casserole at 375° until tender when pierced with a knife. This will take 30-60 minutes depending on the size of the beets.

Let cool. Peel if desired. They can now be refrigerated a day or two before continuing with the recipe.

Whisk together the onions, oil and vinegar. Combine half with the peeled and quartered beets.

Cover a platter with lettuce. Put the dressed beets on the lettuce, and scatter the walnuts and goat cheese over top. Serve the additional dressing on the side.

Serves 2-3

Simple Casserole of Greens

With some fresh greens in the fridge, an easy and delicious meal is not far away.

Yesterday I picked some collard greens from our garden and combined them with the greens from a bunch of beets and some cooked brown rice to make a simple nutritious dinner.

I sautéed some onion and garlic in a little olive oil, then added the washed and chopped greens. I covered the pan and let the greens steam/sauté until they were wilted, stirring a few times so they didn't stick to the pan (although a little browning is no bad thing).

Brown rice bubbled away in the rice cooker, and when it was cooked I stirred in the greens and an egg. I put it all in a casserole dish, grated a little cheese on top, and baked it in the toaster oven at 350° for about 20 minutes. The egg helps the rice and greens hold together so it's more of a casserole. The cheese adds a little flavor and makes it all smell great while cooking.

It was a simple supper on a cool spring evening.

Borscht

We watched the closing ceremonies while eating borscht - a traditional Russian soup that I modified in ways that would probably horrify Russians.

But I thought it tasted really good. And it was a very pretty color. There was also enough to feed a hockey team - I went a little overboard while cutting the root vegetables.

The rosy hue comes from beets. There actually aren't a lot of beets in the soup, but it looks like there are because they stain everything pink. Larry found this a little hard to handle, and found that one bowl was enough. I plan to eat the leftovers all week - I'm sure the soup will get even better as it rests.

Borscht
1 tbsp oil
3 cups diced onion
2 cups diced beets
2 cups diced carrots
1 1/2 cups diced parsnips
1/2 cup diced celery
28oz can tomatoes
2 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups cabbage

Fry the onion in the oil until tender. Add in the remaining roots as they are prepped. Add the celery, canned tomatoes with liquid (mash the tomatoes against the side of the pot as they cook), and about 5 cups of water. Bring to a simmer and add the salt and cabbage. Let simmer, covered, about 20 minutes until tender. Season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice to taste.

Serves 8-10

Simple Supper

I wanted a simple dinner last night, so I scrubbed two white sweet potatoes and threw them in the toaster oven at 400°F, and then rooted through the fridge for other simple-to-fix ingredients.

I found a bunch of beet greens and a pack of firm tofu.

I sautéd an onion and some garlic, threw in some chili flakes and stirred in the washed beet greens. I covered the pot and let the greens stew down, stirring occasionally.

I sliced the tofu and fried it in a little oil in my cast iron fry pan. I poured a few drops of soy sauce on each piece as it cooked, to add a little extra flavor.

The sweet potatoes were a revelation. They were not as dense and sweet as the orange kind of sweet potato. They had a mild soft flavor, and a texture similar to a potato. Even Larry enjoyed them. I sliced them in half and we added butter and salt and pepper. With the greens and crisped tofu, it was a simple yet yummy dinner.

Bean Salad with Beets and Feta

I like to vary the beans in my weekly bean salads. While they all taste pretty much the same, it's nice to have the different colors and shapes in my lunch bag.

This week I cooked up some Tongue of Fire beans. These are a speckled roundish heirloom bean that Finley Farms grew last year. Sadly, this week I emptied my jar. With luck they'll grow them again this year, because they really are a most appealing shape. (There are a few pictures of them in the bean slideshow in the column to the right. They are the pinkish beans with reddish patterns on them.)

I combined them with some leftover marinated beets I had in the fridge. I had roasted and peeled the beets, then tossed them in the juice of a fresh orange, a little olive oil, salt and pepper. They were a fun side dish with dinner, and the next day they made a pretty addition to my lunch salad. A little feta sprinkled on top turned it into a feast. (It looks like a lot of feta in the picture, but it's less than a tablespoon on top of a cup of beans and beets.)

At lunch, I spooned the bean salad over a container of green salad, tossed it together, and ate a colorful pink-tinged meal - very cheerful on these grey cloudy days.

Lemony Beet Greens

We ate leftover root vegetable gratin yesterday. I haven't posted the recipe yet, but I will, because it is both delicious and decadent. I made it with the leftover whipping cream from Christmas.

I wanted a simple and zesty green dish to contrast with the creamy root vegetables. This is what I did:

Lemony Beet Greens
1 bunch beet greens
1 tbsp oil
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup diced onion
2 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper

Remove the stems from the beet greens and wash the greens.

Warm the oil in a medium skillet. Add the garlic, onions and greens. Stir to combine. Let cook 5 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. Squeeze in the lemon juice and stir in the salt and pepper to taste. Let cook another few minutes until the onions are soft and the beets are a good consistency. Season to taste and serve.

Serves 2.

Roasted Root Vegetables

One of the side dishes at Christmas lunch was this pretty assortment of roasted roots.

Who needs table decorations when the food looks this good?

Usually I add potatoes to a casserole of roasted roots, but since we were eating those in the potato torte, I was able to focus on a variety of other vegetables.

I used a bunch of baby chiogga beets, a bunch of baby turnips, a bunch of baby rutabagas, a couple of daikon radish and some carrots.

I started by deciding which casserole dish I was going to bake them in, and then adding the veg as it was scrubbed and chopped. When the dish was full, I tipped the vegetables into a bowl and tossed them with olive oil, salt and pepper, 2 bay leaves, and a couple of sprigs of rosemary.

I cut each of the vegetables in different shapes so cautious eaters could tell what they were going to put in their mouths. The turnips and beets were so small I just cut them in half. The daikon was in log-like shapes, as were the carrots. And the baby rutabagas were so tiny I left them whole (although I did peel them because they were a little hairy).

I poured a little oil in the bottom of the casserole, added the roots and herbs, covered it, and let it sit on the counter until an hour before dinner. I baked it for 45 minutes or so at 350°F. I could have put the casserole in a hotter oven, but the potato torte was in there at 350°F. I find roots are very flexible in their cooking. They came out soft and luscious with wonderful flavor, and looked very pretty on the plate.

Steamed Beet Greens

I've been enjoying Mark Bittman's book Leafy Greens: An A-to-Z guide to 30 types of greens plus more than 120 delicious recipes.

Unfortunately he prefers to blanch greens rather than sauté them because he finds they burn too easily in the pan. I find the occasional slight charring gives them a caramelized flavor that I enjoy, so I will stick to sautéing. Plus, I feel that blanching (boiling the greens in salted water until tender) releases too many nutrients. Unless I'm going to use the blanching water in soups, it feels like a waste.

He also mentioned steaming, however, and I had not tried that. I had a bunch of tender beet greens from Shear Rock Farms so I gave it a try.

I have a collapsible steamer that fits in a pot. I washed the greens, put an inch of water in the pot, added the steamer, and piled the greens on top. As you can see in the picture above, they did not fit very well. I managed to get the lid on, steamed for 5 minutes, and then looked in the pot. The greens had shrunk considerably, as you can see in the photo on the left. I tipped them onto a chopping board, chopped them coarsely, and tossed them with a dressing of a tablespoon olive oil and a tablespoon lemon juice.

They tasted good, cooked quickly, and left very few nutrients behind in the steaming water (I hope). The olive oil in the dressing allowed my body to absorb the nutrients in the greens. Altogether very satisfactory.

Beet Greens with Feta and Potatoes

I love beet greens, but they tend to sog down to almost nothing when they're cooked. The other night I wanted them to hold a more substantial place in the meal, so I cooked them with sautéed potatoes and sprinkled feta on top for a dish that was over the top delicious. And easy too.

When you buy beets with the greens attached, cut off the greens when you get home and store them in separate bags in the fridge. Two vegetables for the price of one - pretty amazing. And when you consider what a nutrition powerhouse a beet green is - full of vitamins and minerals, as well as the eye nutrients lutein and zeaxanthin - you will become sad that you only get one bunch of greens with all those roots.

Potatoes are awesome too - full of the insoluble fibers that regulate blood sugar, among other things. And feta makes happy mouth.

So try this dish, make it often, and your family will be happy and healthy.

(Other greens like spinach or chard or collard greens would work in place of the beet greens. Just cook long enough for them to soften and become delicious.)

Beet Greens with Feta and Potatoes
5 small red potatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
1 bunch beet greens (save beets for another purpose)
2 tbsp feta, crumbled
salt and pepper to taste

Warm the oil in a cast iron skillet. Add the scrubbed and quartered potatoes. Let them cook until crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, turning occasionally but not too often.

Add the washed and chopped beet greens. Sprinkle with salt and toss well. (The oil and salt help the greens break down so the nutrients are better absorbed by your digestive system.) Cover with a large lid, turn down the heat, and let steam until the greens are tender.

Remove from the heat and sprinkle with the feta. Cover and let rest for 2-3 minutes to let the feta soften. Serve immediately.

Serves 2-3

Beet Salad

Some dishes are too simple to be called recipes. This is one of them.

Cook beets until tender. I prefer to scrub them well and then roast them in the toaster oven at 350°F until a sharp knife slides in easily - 30-60 minutes depending on the size of the beets.

Let them cool enough to peel them. Or leave the peel on - it's edible, but the beets are prettier without it. Cut off the top stem part and the thin root end and discard. Cut the beets into wedges.

Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, and crumbled goat cheese.

If you're making it ahead, stir together all but the goat cheese. Crumble that on just before eating so it doesn't turn pink.

Root Vegetable Salad

Move over cole slaw. You are being replaced with this healthy and beautiful grated root salad.

It's easy to make in the food processor and keeps well in the fridge, thus fulfilling the requirements for lazy summer dinners.

This is a great recipe to introduce your family to raw turnips and beets. The lemon juice cuts some of the earthy flavor, and the carrots make it sweet.

Turnips are cruciferous vegetables, so they have similar cancer-preventing substances to cabbages and broccoli. They are anti-inflammatory, good for the heart and circulatory system, and full of minerals and fiber. Beets are a good source of iron and fiber, and are great liver tonics.

Plus, just looking at the colors of this salad will make you happy!

Root Vegetable Salad
3 carrots
3 medium turnips
1 large beet
small wedge of cabbage (about 1 cup grated)
1 cup corn (thawed frozen is fine)
juice of 1 lemon

Grate the carrots, turnips, beet and cabbage in the food processor (or by hand). Tip into a bowl and stir in the corn and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

I find this salad great as it is, but you can serve your favorite salad dressing on the side if you like.

Serves 4-6

Beets

I haven't posted much this month because I'm slightly burned out on writing. I just finished a major redesign on my website (you can see it here www.joycarroll.net) which I'm really happy with but it took a lot out of me (20 years of work are reflected on it).

While I was immersed in the website, I had little attention for anything else besides my practice.

Fortunately, my vegetable garden requires little of me beside watering, and I managed to keep up on that.

So when I came home from work Thursday night, I was able to head out to the garden and pick a couple of beets for dinner.

I grew these beets from seed, which impresses me. Most seeds I plant never show up.

We ate the beets less than 2 hours after I picked them, and Larry commented on how tender they were. This is a guy who used to avoid beets before he met me. He has since learned to enjoy them in small amounts, but he has never before called them tender. There is nothing like homegrown food!

I cut the leaves from the roots and cooked them separately. The roots were scrubbed and put in a covered casserole in the toaster oven at 375°F for about 45 minutes until they were tender. I then peeled them and we ate them with butter and salt and pepper. Yum.

The leaves I washed, cut off the long stems, and combined with turnips greens and radish greens from the farmers market. I sautéed some onion in olive oil, threw in the washed and chopped greens, stirred in salt and pepper, put the lid on, and let it cook 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the greens were wilted and delicious.

I had found some lentil loaf in the freezer the night before, and defrosted it overnight in the fridge. I shaped it into burgers and fried it in a little olive oil. Along with some mashed potatoes and the beets and greens, it made for excellent and healthy comfort food.