Beets Slaw

Beets...Beets... Beets!!! I was never a big fan of beets. I just though of those canned things that you put on salads and are a strange purple color that made the whole salad a scary brown/reddish color. At the beginning of this blog I made beets. I had broiled them and they turned out awesome and sweet but very messy. I am pretty sure my hands were purple for 2 days after that. I was excited to try them again. Its just not an ingredient that I pick up often. Not sure why. They are really good for you. Full of antioxidants, anti-inflammatory and detoxification support with in this little round root jewel. This is something we all need at this time of year. We are all starting to take better care of ourself. (Or you better be!)

I have found that the more I try new things, the more I am opt to eat healthy foods in general. For a while I joined a co-op of fruits and veggies every week and our family tried all sorts of things such as jicama and different types of squash. If you have the opportunity to do one of these I strongly suggest it. It is fun and exciting to see what you get each week. It is also great to try to be creative in what you use it for. Ok, now that I have gone on a tangent, lets get back to the beets.

This recipe called for yellow beets. (It said you could use red/purple beets but then the whole salad would be purple which just, to be honest, freaks me out for some reason.) I looked at my regular grocery store without luck so I went to my favorite food store, A.J.'s. I can always count on them having what I need. As you recall, I have also bought duck, tuna, and the prior beets there. Here are the beets with the stems cut off. Now I am sure that the beet greens are just as tasty but I don't have any idea how to use them. Do you?

Since this topic is about roasting, we placed the beets in the foil pouch and placed them in the oven. Easy!!! Yes, I did say we. I was luck enough to have my mom, dad, and grandma lorraine here at that time so we all got to enjoy the benefits of this blog entry.
We roasted the beets at 425 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. I admit that having the oven on for that long is a pain but on this particular day it was fine because it was freezing outside and I wasn't looking forward to "salad" for dinner. Soup was sounded better.
The beets were taken out of the oven and the skins were removed. The were easy to peel off.
I then used my box grater on the large holes and graded it up. Easier said than done by the way because it basically turned into mush.
The next ingredient was broccoli. I love broccoli. It might be one of my favorite veggies and especially in a salad. I was interested to make this one because you use the stems of the broccoli and not the florets. I simply pealed the outer layer of the stem with a paring knife and then graded it as well in the box grater.
Next came the "salad/slaw" ingredients including thinly sliced red onion, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, salt, sugar and white pepper. (I'm sure you can use regular pepper. I just happen to have white pepper) I mixed this all together and then placed into the fridge overnight to "marry" the flavors. Cole slaw is aways better the second day right? Honestly I don't know because I DO NOT like traditional cole slaw. I have to trust the experts on this one.
This made about 4 side servings of slaw. Because there was 5 of us, we each got a couple of bites for tasting.
We all relatively liked it. The red onions were still pretty big and it seemed like there were ALOT of them. Symon of course liked it. (I am so grateful that he will eat anything) I felt that alone it was pretty strong but to my grandma's suggestion, it would be nice with a piece of chicken or beef that could stand up to the strong flavor. Of course my dad didn't say a word. Just took a bite and moved on. :) I have to be honest though. There was some leftover in the fridge and nobody ate it. So overall I would say it was good but not memorable. We all chose to eat sweets instead. :)

I want to keep trying beets so if you have a good beet recipe let me know. Next up, tomatoes!!!