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No more canned beets for this home-cook. Simple Roasted Beets are a little time consuming, but are worth every second of it!
I don’t even know if I can call this a recipe. It’s more like the result of a revelation that oh-my-god-I-can-roast-real-beets-and-not-have-to-buy-the-can!
Beets are pretty commonly seen on restaurant menus — usually alongside goat cheese or in some kind of salad. I tend to order these dishes because I L-O-V-E beets. Every so often, I’ll buy a can of beets to have at home, but it’s rare. I just don’t like to eat food out of a can. Chickpeas and other legumes are fine, but there’s something about eating a vegetable or fruit out of a can that just irks me. Aluminum gives it a weird taste. I also don’t drink beer out of a can for this reason.
I’m getting away from myself here, aren’t I?
I was invited to a Rosh Hashanah dinner with Amy and her family and asked to bring a vegetable side dish. I wanted to do something simple, yet delicious, that everyone likes. I also wanted to incorporate one of the traditionally symbolic foods for the holiday. There are quite a few — figs, dates, and fish head to name a few. (Yeah, fish head…ew?).
Beets are also on the list. I know mostly everyone in this group eats beets on the reg, so I thought this would be the perfect dish to bring.
I would NOT be serving beets from a can. No-sir-ree! I went to Whole Foods and rummaged around in the organic produce section for a bunch of big, dirty beets to bring home, scrub profusely, and roast up for Rosh Hashanah. Beets are seriously dirty. My hands were covered with dirt — I had to run around Whole Foods looking for someone to give me a paper towel before I could continue shopping. They should really keep a roll right by the produce section, sheesh!
Roasting beets is seriously the easiest thing I’ve ever done in my life. But easy doesn’t mean quick. It’s definitely a time-consuming task, so make sure you plan ahead. You’ll need to wash these bad boys really well. Like more than once. You don’t want to bite into a piece of beet and get dirt granules in your mouth. Cut away the beet greens and SAVE THEM! Tomorrow I’ll show you a really tasty way to use ‘em!
Toss the clean beets with some olive oil and salt and cover them loosely with foil, place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, and roast for 60 minutes. About half-way through, give ‘em a look and make sure the bottoms haven’t completely scorched. It may look like a death scene with all that red beet juice seeping out from the foil, but never fear — no lives were loss during the making of these Simple Roasted Beets.
The part that takes the longest is definitely peeling off the skin once they’re done roasting. A little advice — let them cool long enough so you can hold them without burning your hands. Now use a paper towel to rub off the skin (hands can work too, if you don’t mind having red-stained fingers and hands for the next two weeks). Slice the beets any way you want and voila! Simple Roasted Beets.
I was excited to find both red AND yellow beets at Whole Foods, so I used a mixture of both. Yellow beets are much less messy, and a bit sweeter than the red, but both get a thumbs-up in my book.
Simple Roasted Beets take some time to make, but they are worth every second of it.
