Yay, It’s Time to Cook the Garden Beets!

I am becoming very impatient with my beets. They were planted back in September and it is now January. The tops are beginning to break off so I decided to pull some of the bigger ones. Haha… they are not very big.

I love beets, and have had a bit more success growing them this year. Even the small beets can be eaten, along with the green tops.

The beets are small. The Golden variety grew larger than the red. I had tags in the beds to differentiate the red varieties (Detroit red and Lutz), but they have disappeared. I blame the raccoons who love to mess with my things. I wanted to know which ones grew best, but I think the Golden are the winner!

If you are curious about the healthy benefits of eating beets (and especially fresh from the yard!), read this page at Heart.org.

Easy Peasy – Simply Boil Them

There are many ways to cook beets. From boiled to roasted, you can find many recipes online. I immensely dislike all the pop up ads on cooking websites, so I cooked my beets the way I always do. Simply boil them in good water. I always save my vegetable cooking water.

To cook the beets I cut off the tops and roots. Then, I scrubbed them with a brush under water. I did not peel them, except for the really dried up areas around the top. After that, I thinly sliced them. After boiling in water for about 30 minutes they were tender. Freeze or use the water leftover!

I didn’t get many, and the yellow ones turned red, but they are good. There is nothing like fresh picked garden vegetables.

The beet greens were rinsed and finely chopped. The beets, greens and red water will be part of the slow cooker soup I am making tomorrow.

More beets are still growing in the yard and I’ll leave them to get larger. I don’t need the dirt space this time of year. Our Central Florida January has been pretty cold so far.

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