Beets-
Why would anyone want to eat beets you wonder? I thought the same thing before I actually ate a fresh beet. Previously I had only seen them come out the can, the ripples of the still imprinted into the beets. Oh wait, that is cranberry relish I am remembering. No beets come pre-sliced in little 2-inch sized saucers. They were reminiscent of a slice of cured salami in size and shape.
Foods have all sorts of healing properties. One of these properties is their thermal nature. Some are cooling, like the cucumber, while others are warming like a pepper. Beets are neutral in thermal nature. In general they are a very balancing food. They strengthen the heart and sedate the spirit. By improving circulation the blood is purified, benefitting the liver. If you suffer from constipation due to dehydration they moisten the intestines and relieve those symptoms. They are also rich in silicon, which increases calcium absorption.
Recently somebody gave me a paper bag full of beets. I love beets, but I was a little overwhelmed with 25-30 beets staring up at me in their glory of garden soil; freshly picked from the garden. I imagined they would be delicious roasted when their earthy sweetness caramelizes.
So I scrubbed them up, cut the ends off, brushed them with a little olive oil and salt and into a 378Ëš oven they went. Mid-way through I flipped the beets and waited patiently for them to be done. At the end of their cycle I pull them out and cut into one after the appropriate cooling time and ymm…delicious…sort of. I didn’t think about the skin of the beet and how that would respond to the roasting part. Like a roasted pepper the skin bubbled and lifted up from the meat of the vegetable…only it didn’t quite peel off like a pepper’s would. Either I didn’t roast the beet long enough or it got too gooey from the olive oil. Eating the skin turned out to be an okay endeavor when it came to taste but the texture of it was not pleasing to the palette at all. It was as if there was a piece of wax paper left over on the piece of candy you just put in your mouth.
I am thankful for a sharp paring knife. Even though the beets didn’t turn out how I imagined with a little creativity and flexibility I can still enjoy their earthy goodness. They now sit in a small dish waiting for me to slice them up and eat them cold with a dollop of yogurt and freshly crushed rosemary on top.