14 recipes. Page 1 of 1
As an Amazon Associate, we may earn from qualifying purchases.
Start with recipes grouped by cooking time and how they fit the meal.
With canned chickpeas there is no soaking or boiling, and the only real wait is for the steamed beets to cool completely. Blended with chickpeas and tahini, they turn the hummus deep pink and add sweetness to the nutty, lemony base of classic hummus, with its garlic and cumin.
All of the red comes from beet. It is pureed and stirred into the toasted rice, so every grain takes on a deep color. The rice goes into the pan unwashed to keep its surface starch.
Raw beet, apple and carrot are blended whole with water and drunk unstrained, pulp and all, which makes it thick. Apple and lemon cover much of the beet's earthy taste, which is why the honey goes in only after tasting, and only if needed.
Beets sautéed separately in butter with a splash of vinegar hold their deep red color even after simmering with the rest of the soup. The base is a broth from slowly cooked beef shank, filled out with potato, carrot, onion, and cabbage, and a bowl eats more like a meal than a starter. Sour cream is spooned onto each bowl rather than into the soup, and stirring it in turns the broth pink, tangy, and smooth.
Fine strands of beet and onion, held together by a light coat of potato starch and pancake mix, fry into a thin pancake where the red shreds stay visible. The beet's deep color makes browning hard to read, which sets it apart from other jeon. The cue for turning is the outer edge instead, where the wet batter should look dry.
A day after the beet and onion go into the soy and vinegar brine, the liquid itself has turned deep purple and the salty and sour notes have settled in. It is a fridge pickle, so use a clean utensil each time you take some out.
Wrapped in foil and roasted, the beets keep their juice and come out sweet and tender, with much of their raw earthiness gone. Tangy goat cheese meets that sweetness, while peppery arugula and toasted walnuts round out a classic French-style starter. A dressing of balsamic, honey, and olive oil brings a sweet-tart edge that pulls the separate parts together. With beets of different sizes, a toothpick sliding easily into the center tells you more than the timer does. Peeled beets should cool fully before slicing for clean edges, and the goat cheese goes on just before serving so it keeps its texture.
Sliced paper-thin and dried slowly in the oven, beets turn into crisp chips where their natural sweetness meets rosemary, garlic, salt, and pepper. Edges and smaller pieces dry out first, so pulling finished chips early keeps them from tasting burnt and bitter.
Large cubes of beet and slices of ginger sit in salt brine with a splash of sauerkraut juice to start fermentation, and the result is a deep red drink that tastes salty first, then tart and faintly fizzy. Cutting the beets small or grating them speeds fermentation too much and clouds the liquid. Any fuzzy growth, pink, green, or black spots, or an unpleasant smell means the whole batch gets thrown out, untasted.
Beets cut into 2 cm cubes get dressed like kkakdugi, the cubed radish kimchi, but this batch is eaten fresh rather than fermented. Whatever is not served right away goes into a lidded container and straight into the fridge at 4°C or below rather than sitting out at room temperature. A kimchi meant for long fermentation needs its own tested ratios and instructions, not this one. The salted cubes are drained well first, because any water they carry thins the paste.
Raw beet cut into very fine shreds keeps its sweetness and crunch, dressed the way a French carrot râpée would be, with olive oil, lemon and whole-grain mustard. A little sugar rounds off the acidity. The shreds need an even thickness so that a short 10-minute salting softens every piece to the same degree. Squeezing out the red liquid afterward keeps the beet crisp; left in, it makes the dressing slide off the shreds and collect at the bottom of the bowl. The fine shreds snap easily and are lifted and turned gently until the mustard seeds and a thin film of oil cling to every strand.
Beets blended with milk turn these Austrian bread dumplings a vivid red. Stale bread cubes soak up the beet milk, eggs, and Parmesan for 15 minutes so the mixture binds; flour then firms it enough to hold a round shape. Served warm, they take well to melted butter and more grated Parmesan.
Cubes of white radish take on the beet's color and, after about a day, turn an even pink all the way through. More beet means a deeper color and a sweeter pickle.
Even a small amount of beet stains the broth red. The radish portion is kept the larger one, since a jar where beet outweighs radish turns muddy and dark. Both are cut into the same thin, flat pieces so a spoonful picks up some of each. The liquid drawn out during salting is added to the jar rather than poured away. Pear juice brings sweetness, sliced garlic and ginger bring aroma, and a cooled rice-flour porridge gives the broth body. A good stir after adding the salt water keeps that porridge from settling on the bottom. It sits out for a day before moving to the fridge.