Hate ’em or Love ’em- Beets?
In food conversations, some dishes get normally unanimous approval and applause. Ice cream, cookies, chocolate, pork belly, brisket and rib eye steak normally spike up excitement in food talk. Sweets and quality meats always seem to be at the top of the list. But there are those select ingredients that can quickly divide the room in half and cause a few brows to frown. Beets are a good example.
We’re big fans of growing beets and eating beets from top to bottom. From fresh beet salad greens to roasted beet roots, these colorful tubers keep us busy and satisfied. Unfortunately, there’s another half of the population that can’t bear the taste or texture of beets. “Tastes like dirt!”
A friend of ours stays away from any root that makes him “pee red”. Freaked out the first time he ate beets as an adult. Thought he had internal hemorrhaging. The “unusual” color isn’t an argument we’ll contest with. Although, there are white beets to resolve this issue.
Another friend shrieks from the word “beets” because it brings back horrible memories of her grandmother forcing them to eat beets out of the can.
And then there’s a more daring group of pals that adore beets, in any shape or form. These are the peeps we talk and feed liberally when it comes to beets.
So our population of food friends seems to be pretty much split in half. There are the haters and the lovers and rarely does anyone ever sit on the fence when it comes to beets. You either will eat it, or pass it to Mikey.
What’s your take on beets? Are you a hater or lover?
Beet Lovers,
Diane and Todd
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I used to be a hater, but have since been turned to the red side. Those gold beets are beautiful. What is their flavor like compared to the red beets?
I started loving beets when I lived in the country outside Boulder, where we had an amazing, huge organic garden. Colorado is beet country (did you know that?), and long ago there actually was a sugar mill not far north of here that turned the plentiful sugar beets into processed sugar. Anyway, I digress. The beets from our organic garden were earthy and sweet and substantial and delicious. How could I resist?
Then I married a bonafide beet hater. His family tells stories of him crying when he was served beets as a child, but I was convinced it was just an irrational prejudice. As a beet enthusiast and eager newlywed, I was sure I could find a way that he would like them, to no avail. I finally accepted that he had a true hate for the flavor when some baby beet greens were disguised in a spring salad of mixed greens and I watched him literally *shudder* when he tasted them.
Now, I just have beet orgies when he leaves town on a business trip and make big vats of Russian Cabbage Beet Borscht and Roasted Beets with Balsamic and Goat Cheese and all sorts of other beet delights. I pee pink for a week and am very very happy.
Not impressed with beets, the only way I eat them is Pickled Beet Eggs in honor of my mother, my mother always made this recipe at Easter. Hard boiled eggs in a vinegar- canned beet, brown sugar marinade. The hard boiled eggs were a lovely purple color. I may try them again as a shaved item in my salad, running out of vegetarian ideas! Thanks for reminding me they exist!
Yes to pickled beet eggs! It was a family favorite for us western Pennsylvanians too.
I love them! Small, roated, with a simple shallot vinaigrette, delicious! Red pee, who cares, it is just natural pigments, it beats the asparagus pee for sure.
Any recipe suggestions?
I like beets. I don’t eat tons of them and am only learning to appreciate pickled beets, but I do grow and enjoy cooking with beets in season. My favorite is the chioggia variety which has a lovely red and white bullseye pattern when cut through horizontally.
I am the winner of the knife in the beet weigh off last year. I adore my New West Knifeworks knife! I carry it to cooking classes and my family fights over who gets to use it.
Rachel- hi! we’re happy that you love the knife and again, congrats. xo
Mostly, I’m a hater. Although I LOVE beets when they’re cold and thinly sliced in a salad. So I guess I’m a hot beet hater. Lordy, I am strange.
ps: Jen Yu is not a slob.
Love beets. Never knew there was white beets though! Does it taste like turnip?
But mine is a family of beet lovers. From beet root rice, beet raita, stir fried to beet halwa these tubers are versatile.
Lover, especially when they are roasted or have goat cheese crumbled on top!
I love beets and am slowly working on converting Mr. B into a beet lover. He started out claiming that they taste “like dirt” and now after roasted beet salads and a few other dishes is slowly changing his mind. I think they are one of the most beautiful vegetables!
Love! Some of our favorite dishes include roasted beets with spiced quinoa and yogurt, false Mahshi (a layered dish of beets, beef, chard, and rice), and sweet and sour beets and mushrooms served over white grits. The first two are based on recipes from the NY Times.
I LOVE beets but didnt used to. Getting a CSA box in San Diego changed my life, and my take on beets. Beets are the kings (or queens!) of the plant kingdom in terms of iron. I never once took an iron pill when I was pregnant. I had perfect hemoglobin. I just ate lots of beets 🙂
Your pics are breathtaking. And make me want to roast some beets!
love
LOVE!! But I hate that they stain my clothes. Okay, I guess what I hate is that I’m a slob 🙁
I love this reply… I feel your pain… Love Beets but they are messy by themselves…but add me into the equation and get out the goggles! :).
I am in the beet lover category. Luckily I was very far into my beet loving years before I realized they were those things I was forced to eat out of a can as a child. I may never have tried them had I found this out earlier.
I was a hater years ago, now I’m a lover. My Polish wife Kasia made my favorite beet dish last night – “barszcz czerwony z krokietem” (clear beetroot soup with croquette). It was delicious, of course, but one of my favorite things to eat are the “spent” beet slices after they’re removed from the broth. So good! Another favorite dish is “buraki z chrzanem”, a simple shredded beet salad with lots of horseradish.
LOVE beets–any color, any shape, any way!
I agree. I have never had a fresh beet that I didn’t gobble up. They are amazing, sweet, colorful and utterly versatile.