Beets

Beet, Beetroot or Garden beet.  They come in varying colors most well known of these being Purple or Deep Pink inside. Beets are believed to have been found originally along the Mediterranean.  In the 19th century it was discovered that one variety - the sugar beet - could have sucrose extracted and refined as an alternative to sugar cane. (more on this later as I have learned something new and wish to share it with you, see below the recipes) Depending on the variety of the beet there are many ways to cook or eat them, the Spinach Beet and Chard are used for its leaves that are often cooked like spinach.  The mangelwurzel was used as animal feed.  The sugar beet was used to make table sugar and the beet root was cultivated for the tuber to be cooked in different ways, while beet juice is used as a colourant, here have been numerous medicinal uses as well.
A one cup serving of beets has about 74 calories, 3 grams of dietary fiber 11% Vitamin C, 51% Manganese and various other vitamins and minerals.




I desperately wanted to buy fresh beets, but apparently my grocery store didn't have them.  I opted for cut canned beets instead, not pickled.  It turns out using canned beets just speeds up the process if you are planning to roast them, which is what I did.  I love pickled beets so it didn't seem that much of a stretch that I might like them roasted but I have to tell you I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed them.  I would say in the future roasted beets could replace potatos along side a steak; no problem, which is how I ate them.  The beets roasted with red onions paired together beautifully.  I also made a salad with them.


What you will need to roast the beets.


Two cans beets, not pickled.  Store brand is just fine for this method.
Olive oil to coat them
Sea or Kosher Salt
Course Ground black pepper
Garlic powder
Thinly sliced red onions, use your desired amount.


Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Open and drain beets, place on foil rimmed baking sheet along with sliced onions scattered about.  Drizzle desired amount of olive oil on beets/onions and sprinkle with salt, peper and garlic.  Toss to coat and lay in even layer on baking sheet.  Roast for 7-8 minutes. Using tongs turn each beet over and roast for 7-8 minutes longer.  Remove sheet form oven and serve warm as a side dish or allow to cool and use in a salad.


Beet and Clementine salad:
Romaine lettuce chopped to your desired size and amount, handfull of roasted beets, sliced fresh red onion, chick peas, clementine segments, what ever crumbly cheese you have on hand (I used Queso Fresco a mexican crumbled cheese but you could use feta or bleu and it would be great) and c.hopped roasted walnuts.  I tossed with a basic vinagrette I made using Rasberry Blush Vinegar.  Very very yummy salad indeed.




So back to beet sugar.  Turns out that most store brands, which I am a buyer of by the way, may actually more than cane sugar for our table sugar.  As a matter of fact (the label reader in me cringed) I realized that one of the brands I have bought in the past actually read "Pure Sugar". Turns out, due to no regulation, a company has does not have to provide the source of the sugar and the bags may actually contain all beet sugar or part beet and part cane sugar.  Beet sugar apparently does not have as lengthy a process as cane sugar and can be grown further north  and at different times of the year which makes the production of it a bit cheaper.  What is wrong with this you ask?  I like to save money so I am all about store brands but I am not so sure anymore.  It depends on what you feel might be wrong.  Beet sugar, I come to find, behaves differently in baking that cane sugar.  It doesn't make caramel well, and may burn while be broiled for a brulee or other fancy desert where cane sugar makes a much better desert.  Make sense to me now as I have noticed problems in both these areas and never considered the sugar to be the culprit, just thought I might be having a bad day.  The other issue I have found, searching the net (which is not always a great thing, especially since I am not happy with what I found) is that 50% of all sugar consumed in the US is beet sugar, 95% of that sugar is grown from Monsanto Round up ready seeds.  If you have not watched the documentary Food Inc. stop reading right now and go rent it and you will know why this is bad bad bad.  It kind of sucks to find out that doing research for a blog I thought would be fun and get me to try new things will just make more work for me as I have to now research the food I buy that much more. :(
I am definitely buying only Florida Cane Sugar from now on, since there are companies here that do not have GM Cane Sugar, damn the price I gotta do it.  Now,I have to find out if my actual beets are GM....I see more internet searches in my future.