The Beet Goes On
Grown primarily for livestock food and sugar processing, only a small percentage of beets make it to the dinner table. Nevertheless, beets are enjoying a comeback! Easy to grow, they're completely edible from top to bottom, and packed with nutritional value.
A Few Facts About Beets
Courtesy of Wikipedia
The beet (Beta vulgaris) is a plant in the amaranth family. It is best known its numerous cultivated varieties, the most well known of which is probably the red root vegetable known as the garden beet. However, other cultivated varieties include the leaf vegetables chard and spinach beet, as well as the root vegetables sugar beet, which is important in the production of table sugar, and mangelwurzel, which is a fodder crop. Three subspecies are typically recognised. All cultivated varieties fall into the subspecies Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris, while Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima, commoly known as the sea beet, is the wild ancestor of these and is found throughout the Mediterranean, the Atlantic coast of Europe, the Near East, and India. A second wild subspecies, Beta vulgaris subsp. adanensis, occurs from Greece to Syria.
The beet has a long history of cultivation stretching back to the second millennium BC. The plant was probably domesticated somewhere along the Mediterranean, whence it was later spread to Babylonia by the 8th century BC and as far west as China by 850 AD. Available evidence, such as that provided by Aristotle and Theophrastus suggests that the leafy varieties of the beet were grown primarily for most of its history, though these lost much of their popularity much later following the introduction of spinach. The beet became highly commercially important in 19th century Europe following the development of the sugar beet in Germany and the discovery that sucrose could be extracted from them, providing an alternative to tropical sugar cane. It remains a widely cultivated commercial crop for producing table sugar.
Beta vulgaris is a herbaceous biennial or rarely perennial plant with leafy stems growing to 1-2 m tall. The leaves are heart-shaped, 5-20 cm long on wild plants (often much larger in cultivated plants). The flowers are produced in dense spikes, each flower very small, 3-5 mm diameter, green or tinged reddish, with five petals; they are wi...
How About a Beet Marshmallow?
Beet Recipes & More
University of Wisconsin, Madison Meet Professor Irwin Goldman, who considers beets a rare treasure!LoveToKnow Beet & Horseradish Sandwich, Beet & Potato Sandwich, Beet & Sardine Sandwich, Beet & Sweet Potato Soup, Beet & Wax Bean Soup, Beet Cream Soup, Beet Fritters, Beet Greens with Young Beets, Beet Relish, Beet Salad Farci, Beet & Potato Salad, Beets au Gratin, Buttered Beets, Beet, Pear & Nut Salad, and more.
Delicious Organics Beet & Arugula Salad, Beet Soup with Cilantro Pesto, Chilled Beet Soup, Borscht, Glazed Baby Beets, Roasted Beet Salad, Beet Salad with Feta, Roasted Beets in Puff Pastry, Beet & Apple Salad, Watercress, Roasted Beets & Goat Cheese Salad, Roasted Beet Salad with Blue Cheese, Beet Salad with Oranges, Red Risotto, Red (Beet) Velvet Chocolate Cake, and more.
AllRecipes.com Beet, Walnut & Prune Salad, Roasted Beet, Crab & Vegetable Soup, Beet & Pear Puree, Beetroot Relish, Cold Russian Borscht, Garlicky Beet Delight, Roasted Beets 'n Sweets, Roasted Beet Wedges, German-Style Beet Salad, Ukranian Borscht, and more.
Do You Have a Favorite Beet Recipe?
Add Your Lens or Website Link Here
#1
Chocolate Beet Brownies
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#2
Beet Pasta Recipe
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#3
Beet Wine Recipes
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JaguarJulie wrote...
Hmmm, never thought of a beet marshmellow -- that sounds interesting. I LOVE slice beets on my salad with blue cheese dressing! Yumm.
The_Homeopath wrote...
I love beets. We use them in salads and also in crock-pot soups. Lensrolling onto my local lenses because we live in a HUGE beet-growing area (just a couple of months and we'll be able to go to the farms and harvest our own to put up!). You're also welcome to add this to my Colorado group if you'd like.
Mica_K wrote...
Wow! Just found this lens. I was busy scouting for recipes on beets since I received a bagful from the garden of my father-in-law.
I'm marking this as a favorite so I can get some inspiration next time I'm presented with a bagful of fresh beets!
Thanks for this.
EelKat wrote...
I love beet greens, they are best steammed; we grew beets in our garden
awelldressedbullet wrote...
Never been a huge beet consumer, but after reading this, I'm craving for 'em. What another "beetiful" lens! - Kathy
KimGiancaterino wrote...
That's funny, Chef Keem... you should have your own cooking show!
chefkeem wrote...
One day, right before serving time at my Alaska lodge kitchen, I took a small cooked beet in my fist and let the root dangle out between my fingers. Then, I walked into the dining room full of hungry guests and yelled: "I got him! I got him!" while squeezing my fist together. The beet juice running down from my hand looked like the blood of some rat-tailed critter losing it's life quickly and cruelly under my pressure.
That was fun. For me. :-)
Great lens. 5*s! I love beets. -Chef Keem
Margaret_Schaut wrote...
Fabulous, Of Course! I love Borscht, made with beets! I've added this to a permanent display page in the Mall on Squidoo!
deadhippo wrote...
Hi,
Thanks for posting my Schrute Farm designs. As far as beets go this lens is probably number one and I rated it as such.
Courtesies
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