Category Archives: Beets

Beet Hummus Recipe

26 Tuesday Jul 2016

Posted by in Appetizer, Beets, Gluten Free, quick and easy, Recipe, Uncategorized, Vegetarian

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Here’s a recipe for a homemade Beet Hummus spread with Za’atar. If you’re like me, and love beets and hummus, you might’ve seen and tried the combination of the two from your local restaurants and grocery stores. In fact, I’ve seen beet hummus on display at both Costco and Trader Joe’s within the last few weeks.

I came across the Shocking Pink Beet Hummus recipe in  The Picnic: Recipes and Inspiration from Basket to Blanket by Marnie Hanel, which was the latest selection for our Cookbook Club. This was the perfect recipe to use on my continued quest of converting everyone into beet lovers.

Here’s my adaptation of the recipe. Enjoy!

Beet Hummus Recipe (1)

Beet Hummus with Za’atar

Ingredients

2 medium beets
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin

For serving

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon za’atar
pita chips

Beet Hummus Recipe (3)

Directions

1. Scrub beets and trim the ends. Place in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium, and simmer until beets are tender, 30-45 minutes. Drain beets and cool completely. Peel the beets, and reserve 1/4th of one of them. Chop the rest of the beets into about 1/2″ pieces.

2. Add chopped beets with the remaining ingredients into a blender and puree until completely smooth. Taste and adjust the seasoning with extra salt and lemon juice as needed.

3. Spread the hummus onto a serving plate or bowl and garnish with the reserved 1/4th of the beet (finely diced), olive oil, and za’atar.

Beet Hummus Recipe (4)

And that’s all! You get the most unbelievably gorgeous vibrant color of hummus. The addition of beets bumps up the nutrients and vitamins and cut down on the starchiness of the traditional hummus. Plus it’s fun and tastes awesome!

 

Composed Salad: Beets, Potatoes, Avocado, Arugula & Beef

15 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by in Avocado, Beef, Beets, Dinner, Lunch, Potatoes

≈ 1 Comment

Summer nights when the air is still warm from a hot day are finally here, and standing in front of the stove or the oven is out of the question.  These are the nights, more often than not, taht we eat cold meals.  This was the latest creation: Composed Salad with Beets, Potatoes, Avocado, Arugula and Beef.

The beauty of this particular salad is that both the potatoes and beef were left over from our camping trip last weekend.  Sliced and arranged on a platter, the two gave a nice bulk to the salad.  Around the potatoes and beef, I scattered slices of avocado and cold beets that were boiled and chilled.

I piled peppery arugula in the center of the plate and drizzled the whole salad with lemon juice and olive oil and sprinkled with salt and ground black better. This is as good as it gets! 

For a perfect finish, grill a slice or two of bread to soak up the ruby beet juice that collects at the bottom of the plate.

And there you have it!  Hungry?

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Indian-Style Roasted Beets and Carrots Salad: The Oxbow Box Project CSA

08 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by in Beets, Book Club, Cooking, Meatless Monday, Recipe, Sides, Vegetables, Vegetarian

≈ 3 Comments

Perfect for Meatless Monday, try this Indian-style Roasted Beets and Carrots Salad I made for the cookbook potluck club from the recent selection of Oxbow Farm vegetables. Enjoy!

 I was contacted by Oxbow Farm in June to take a part of their Oxbow Box project where local Seattle food bloggers get to pick up a box of fresh, local produce, and create something delicious to share with their readers.  This is what my CSA basket looked like:


On the night that I received the basket, I made a composed salad and drank a glass of wine.

This time around, I had a little bit more time to play with the remaining contents of the box and decided to see how beets, leeks, and carrots would co-exist with one another.  This happened on the same night as my book club had a meeting to discuss a book Climbing the Mango Trees ~ Madhur Jaffrey’s Memoir of a Childhood in India.  I chose turmeric, ginger, garlic, and mustard seeds to bring out the Indian flavors in the dish and got to cooking.

Indian-style Roasted Beets and Carrots Salad

Ingredients

4 medium beets, peeled and chopped

4 medium carrots, peeled and chopped

2 teaspoons vegetable
oil

salt and pepper to taste

turmeric to taste

ground cayenne pepper to taste

2 tablespoons coconut oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons minced ginger

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 leek, white part only, halved and sliced

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1/4 teaspoon ground
cayenne pepper

salt and pepper to taste

juice of 1 lime

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2.  Toss beets and carrots with vegetable oil.  Season with salt, pepper, turmeric and ground cayenne pepper.  Arrange the vegetables in a baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 35-45 minutes, stirring half way through.  Vegetables should be caramelized and tender when finished.

3.  Heat coconut oil in a nonstick large skillet over medium high heat.  Add garlic and ginger and saute for 2-3 minutes, until golden.  Add mustard seeds and stir until they pop.

4.  Add leeks and lower the heat to medium.  Cook leeks, stirring often, until they are soft, 10-15 minutes.

5.  Stir in sugar, turmeric and cayenne pepper.  Mix together with the leeks.

6.  Toss roasted vegetables together with cooked leeks.  Season with salt and pepper and lime juice.

You can eat this hot, room temperature or chilled.

I sincerely loved being a part of the Oxbow Box project and am excited to see what my fellow bloggers did with theirs.  The produce inside the box was vibrant in color, aroma, and flavor – sign up with Oxbow Farm CSA to receive your own box!

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BOA Trinity Salad ~ Beets, Oranges, and Avocado

05 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by in Beets, Gluten Free, Lunch, Recipe, Salad, Vegetables, Vegetarian

≈ 1 Comment

A few days earlier, I shared with you a slice of birthday cake.  The sweet memories of the stacked honey cake layers still linger.  But that sweetness had to wait until after dinner.  What came before the cake was a culinary experience of sorts, and a test of boundaries for my family.  Would a group of somewhat conservative eaters (I’m primarily pointing fingers at my dad and my brother) appreciate a trinity of beets, oranges, and avocado?  There was only one way to find out.

As I spent several hours in my parents’ kitchen preparing a few salads for my birthday dinner, I came across three beets at the bottom drawer of their refrigerator.  I am pretty sure the beets were intended for a pot of borscht, but I had something else in mind for their final destination.  I decided to drizzle them with olive oil, generously season them with salt and pepper, and roast them in a hot oven.  Oranges and avocado joined the party and offered a glorious array of colors.

Let me tell you, the salad got high scores and was approved by every picky eater.

BOA Trinity Salad ~ Roasted Beets with Supremes of Orange and Avocado

Ingredients


3 beets

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

2 oranges

1 avocado

Directions


1.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2.  Scrub the beets, trim off the ends and stems, and cut the beet into six wedges.

3.  Place beets on a foil-lined baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Roast for 35-45 minutes or until tender.

4.  Supreme (segment) oranges, reserving orange juice for the dressing.

5.  Arrange cooled beets on a platter in a circular shape.

6.  Slice avocado and arrange between wedges of beets, alternating with orange supremes.

7.  Drizzle the salad with orange juice and olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.

That’s it folks!  If you feel super fancy, you might add nuts and cheese to the salad.  You can also arrange the salad on top of arugula or your favorite salad greens.

Why the salad works: the texture variation between the buttery, creamy avocado and the hearty beets offers a perfect mouthfeel in every bite.  The sweetness of the oranges compliments the earthy sweetness of the beets, while the oranges’ acidity cuts the avocado’s richness nicely.

The rest of the birthday dinner table:

And one more shot of the cake:

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Birthday Celebration ~ Let There be Cake, Beets, and Potatoes!

03 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by in Avocado, Beets, Dessert, Holidays

≈ 4 Comments

Last week I celebrated my birthday! (Thank you).  While I didn’t get a pony, or a kangaroo for that matter, I did get to celebrate my birthday with family and friends.  What could be sweeter, except for a slice of my mom’s Honey Cake with Sour Cream Frosting and Toasted Walnuts?  Not much.  The cake was exactly what I wanted for my special day.  In fact, I was sure to request the cake on more than several occasions, weeks before my actual birthday.

The cake: layers of honey cake spread with sweet and tangy whipped sour cream and sprinkled with toasted walnuts.  The cake stood tall and proud.  Since the birthday celebration took place in the evening, the lighting did the cake very little justice.  I used this light deficiency as an excuse to ask for an extra slice of cake to take home and photograph.  I was a very happy girl the next morning!

Thank you to my mom for baking this special cake for me and for beautiful sunflowers (scroll down to see those sunny beauties!).  I hope one day to get the recipe for this cake and bake it for my own daughter.


Curious about the beets and potatoes in the title of the post?  Check back in a couple of days for details.

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Guest Blogger Post: Beet & Cherry Salad with Goat Cheese & Champagne Vinegar

27 Monday Jun 2011

Posted by in Beets, Cheese, cherries, Farmers Market, guest blogger, Recipe, Salad

≈ 8 Comments

I wanted to share new culinary perspectives with you and thought that one way to do so was to host a guest blogger. Alex of Yumsandloves replied and here we are! Hope you enjoy her post – I love beets and am always looking for a new recipe for this sweet, earthy root vegetable!  If you want to be the next guest blogger here at Snacking in the Kitchen, please let me know!



* * *

Hi, I’m Alex and I blog at yumsandloves.com.  My blog is just that… yummy food and things I love. Although Anna and I have never met, I can tell we have a lot in common.  The number one commonality…our love of food!  I have been following Anna’s recipes and restaurant reviews and I’m happy to share mine with her.  I told her one of my ideas was to make something from ingredients at one of our local farmers’ markets!  Thanks Anna for giving me the chance to be a guest writer on your blog!  

Farmers’ Market Salad: Roasted Beets, Rainier Cherries & Goat Cheese

On a Sunday morning, darling hubby, our French Bulldog, and myself  headed to Ballard for the Farmers’ Market.  I was leaning towards making a salad!  When I saw beets, I knew that would be the base of my salad.  We both love roasted beets and enjoy eating them in our meals.  While walking, we brainstormed some ideas and then…Rainier cherries.  Yum!  I grabbed about a 1/2 pound of cherries and had to resist eating the entire bag right there!  Next item: goat cheese – a nice container from a farm up in Lynden, WA. 

Ingredients

8 Small Beets
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
10 Rainier Cherries
Goat Cheese
1 tablespoon champagne vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon honey

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 375.  Wash beets and remove leafy part.  Put beets in a foil pack and drizzle with olive oil.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast beets for about an hour, or until easily pierced with a knife.  
Once cooled, peel and dice the beets.

2.  Cut cherries in half and remove pit. Arrange beets on a serving dish and sprinkle with cherries.

4.  Whisk  together vinegar, olive oil and honey.  Add more honey if desired. Drizzle the dressing over beets and cherries. I tried to get some of the dressing inside the cherries to add extra sweetness.

5.  Top the salad with a generous dollop of goat cheese and dig in!

 
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Roasted Beet Salad with Goat Cheese, Avocado & Olives

02 Saturday Apr 2011

Posted by in Avocado, Beets, Cheese, Cooking, Lunch, Recipe, Salad, Vegetarian

≈ 4 Comments

It would be an understatement to say that I love beets.  Perhaps it’s in my blood (being Russian and all).  I grew up eating beets.  I still remember washing dishes that held beets and how the color of the soap would turn a beautiful casis.  But that’s another story.  Most commonly my family would enjoy beets in a bowl of borcht, or shredded and mixed with mayonnaise, prunes, walnuts, and garlic (give this a try before you form an opinion).

Perhaps I would be exaggerating, but I feel sorry for people who don’t like beets.  My suspicion is that they only had beets out of a can – and sorry peeps, but those are not beets.  That would be like saying that a tube of cranberry-like jelly is cranberry sauce.

Regardless, my sister (aka MangoTomato girl) and I were shopping together at a grocery store and I saw beets.  I wanted beets.  She purchased them.  At that point I didn’t really know what was in store for these garnet roots and they hung out for a few days in the fridge.

Today was the day for them to face their destiny.  I scrubbed the beets and cut off the root end and the top, just enough to reveal their flesh.  The beets went onto an aluminum foil and I drizzled them with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper.

Next, tightly close the foil and place the beets into a hot oven (preheat to 400 degrees) for about 90 minutes or until the beets are tender.  If you have extra garlic laying around, go ahead and place it along with the beets.

Usually I would allow the beets to cool before peeling them (the skin is really thin and you can pretty much use your fingers – gloved or ungloved – to tug the skin off the beet).  This time, however, the clock was approaching 8:30pm and it was time for dinner.

For the salad, I sliced the beet into little planks (keeping the skin on).  The beets were joined by avocado, goat cheese, Peruvian olives, pecans and red onion.  Just a bit more olive oil, salt, and pepper over the top and it was time to eat!

For all you recipe lovers, here’s a recipe for 1 salad.

Ingredients
1 roasted beet, peeled (optional) and sliced
1/2 avocado, cubed
4 Peruvian olives, pitted and sliced
few thinly slices of red onion
1 hunk of goat cheese, crumbled
1 tablespoon of chopped pecans, toasted
Olive oil, salt, pepper

Directions
1.  Arrange beets, avocado, olives, and onion on the plate.  Add goat cheese and pecans.  Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
2.  Eat.