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I’ve spent the last several months discovering root vegetables. For whatever reasons, I never ventured much beyond potatoes, carrots, onions and the occasional yam. Last spring I stumbled upon parsnips and well, yum! Why had I never tried them before?! Who knows? Thus began my foray into the Wonderful World of Root Vegetables. The latest jewel in my search for buried treasure? BEETS! OK, so they’re not "flying" exactly, but they sure are tasty…
 
Not canned, not pickled-fresh! Root, greens and all! Frankly, I’d rather have to wash the dirt off garden-fresh vegetables than have to worry about BPAs and food-borne illnesses. Besides, fresher is better-tastier and certainly more nutritious. Beets, for example, are loaded with nutrition: Vitamins A, B1, B2, B6 and C and they’re an excellent source of calcium, magnesium, copper, phosphorous, sodium and iron. In addition to aiding in the cleansing and building of blood, beets are also valuable in combating anemia, hardening of the arteries, helping to normalize blood pressure, easing constipation and can be protective against certain cancers.

As far as cooking goes, beets are really wonderful because you can use both the greens and the roots to make completely different dishes. This week I started toying with that idea and ended up with a combination of oven-roasted beets (and other tasty root vegetables) and sautéed greens. These dishes are lovely on their own, but also delicious (my favorite) when served together.

I love this dish and wanted to share it, so I’ve decided to do is to post a few recipes in this blog in hopes of sharing and getting some feedback. I’d love to hear what you think!

Oven-Roasted Beets with Sautéed Greens

Ingredients:
A bunch of beets, including the greens
3 or 4 (or more, if you like) baby turnips, peeled and cut in chunks
6-8 fingerling potatoes
Olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 tsp butter (optional)
Kale
Mushrooms, sliced
Garlic, sliced
Balsamic vinegar

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Wash the beets and trim the greens (leaving an inch or so of the stalks attached to the beets) and set aside. You want to keep the beetroot intact, so that lovely color doesn’t run and turn the other vegetables pink.  Put the beets, turnips and potatoes in an oven-safe baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, and toss to coat. Roast in the oven for 45 minutes to one hour, until vegetables are soft (a knife will slide in and out easily).

Meanwhile, wash the beet greens and kale (discarding the kale stems) and tear or roughly chop into bite-sized pieces. Wash and slice mushrooms. Slice the garlic.

When the root vegetables are nearly done, heat butter and olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. When the butter stops sizzling, add the mushrooms and sauté until soft. (Note: if you don’t want to use butter, you can just use olive oil instead. I just happen to like the flavor combination of mushrooms and butter). Add the sliced garlic and sauté until it begins to turn golden. Add the greens and sauté until they turn bright green and begin to wilt. Remove from stove; add a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar and toss.

Arrange the greens on a plate and place oven-roasted vegetables on top. At this point, I like to rub the beets to remove the skin and then slice the beets before placing them on the greens.

Go Beets!