Beetroot

I'm up to my eyeballs in beetroot off my allotment, but its not something I've ever grown / eaten much before; so what the hell can I do with it? I hate vinegar and won't consider pickling it, and there's only so much barszcz that a man can make or eat.

Do you hate vinegar so much that you wouldn't put an olive oil/vinegar/sugar dressing on cold cooked beetroot? Top with chopped parsley. It's one of our winter salads here.
A good Turkish dish iuses cooked beetroot, diced. Then put some oil in a frying pan, warm it, add garlic, paprika and tomato sauce (not puree out of a tube or can, but properly reduced tomatoes). When it's all bubbling nicely add the beetroot. Turn it all over to amalgamate. Then tip into a serving dish. Top with chopped parsley. Serve cold.
I have a recipe for beetroot puree long cooked with vinegar. It goes well with game. But you say no to vinegar....

Soup:
4 beetroot
olive oil
onion
2 tspn cumin seeds
1 tspn fresh sliced ginger
garlic
2 tspn smoked paprika
1/2 tbspn balsamic vinegar
500 ml veg stock
Cook beetroot. Rub off skin. Chop up.
Fry onion. Add cumin seeds. Toast a little. Stir in ginger garlic and paprika.
Add beetroot and stock. Simmer 20 minutes or so.
Blend into soup.
Season. Serve with sour cream.
Freeze into individual servings so you have soup until next beetroot season.

Summer beet soup chlodnik.
The recepies in English (Am) have meat as one of the ingredients. Never had it with meat - it's a light veggie soup.

Beetroots with dressing (alightly different than Baz_Faz's):
- boiled beetroots in halves, slices or cubes
- dressing:
1/2 veg oil, 1/2 olive oil
crushed garlic
s & p
fresh lemon juice

Same as above, with crumbled soft goat cheese

And the simplest: beetroots halves or slices with melted butter and chopped parsley

Send it to me.

the unlikeliest salad I ever had was beetroot, hazelnut and raspberry, and it was lovely. Obviously there was a dressing - balsamic, I think.

Roasted beetroot is nice, too. Or done en papillotte (sp??) with garlic and olive oil.

Makes a nice slaw shredded up with red cabbage.

Braised with red cabbage as well.

In Riga I had beetroot and watermelon salad. If you are travelling the world to collect unusual salads, that is one.

OP why did you grow so much of it?

I just steam it and put absolutely nothing on it. Its nice and sweet.

Beetroot is a good natural colour dye you can use on your homespun wool. How are the spinning lessons coming along, Smedley? Got the wool clip in for this year yet?

mmmmmmmmm itchy jumpers....

lovely, and better than eating it I'm sure

There's another delicious cold cooked beetroot salad in a Jamie Oliver book, I think, with cress or rocquet, smoked salmon torn into pieces, spring or spanish onion, lemon juice and olive oil.

Or as one of the other posters said, you could roast it with garlic, onion and other root vegetables (the usual suspects) and squeeze half an orange over them when they're still warm for a roasted vegetable salad.

roast some with some pumpkins, sweet potato, potato and red onions sprinkled with rosemary garlic and olive oil and serve all mixed together.

Boil some, chop and mxi through some greek yoghurt and a drizzle of honey for a nice cold salad

Oh and diced cold cooked bettroot chopped with apple and mixed with yoghurt is good too.

If carrot cake, why not beetroot and carrot cake using 25% grated beetroot, 75% grated carrot. Never tried, but I can see it working.

If you eat too much pickled beetroot, it will turn your urine and/or stools red! This has happened to me on two occasions! Pretty scary, I can tell you, until the penny drops!

Beetroot, apple, celery, ginger and carrot juice, takes a bit of getting used to, but is great nonetheless.
Roasted beetroot, from it's raw state, is amazing. Try making a tapenade from it, replacing olives with beetroot.
Is fab in a salad with some cured game (venison, etc..), rocket, goats cheese, balsamic.
#15 is spot on, your dunny will be fleuro red.

Cook the greens and serve with olive oil and lemon. Make an appetizer out of chopped cooked beets, chopped walnuts, and prunes (can provide recipe).

Cake aux Betteraves
Beet Cake.
Pronounced: cake/ oh / beh ter ahv

INGREDIENTS:
1-1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2-1/2 cups unbleached, all purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
4 eggs
1 cup canola oil
1 cup sour cream
2 cups grated, fresh beets
For dusting: confectioner's sugar
PREPARATION:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease a 9" round cake pan.
1. Put the sugar, salt and ginger in a large bowl.

2. Sift the flour and baking powder over the sugar and spices and stir to combine.

3. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil and sour cream.

4. Add the egg mixture and the grated beets to the flour/sugar mixture and stir to combine.

5. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour or until a cake skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

6. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack.<hr>
Chocolate Beet Cake

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3 large eggs, beaten
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, Canola or corn oil
1 1/2 cups grated cooked beets
2 teaspoons vanilla
powdered sugar, optional
PREPARATION:
Preheat oven to 350°.
Combine flour, soda, salt, sugar and cocoa in a bowl; set aside. In a mixing bowl, combine the eggs and oil. Beat in vanilla and continue beating until well blended. Slowly beat in dry ingredients until well mixed; stir in beets.

Pour into a greased and floured 9x13-inch baking pan. Bake at 350° for 25 to 35 minutes, or until cake bounces back when touched lightly with finger.
Cool in pan on a rack. Frost cooled cake or dust with powdered sugar.

Beets can be frozen:

To Freeze -- Freezing does not improve the quality of beets, it only preserves the quality you begin with. Freezing magnifies imperfections and woodiness in over mature beets. Select deep, uniformly-red, tender, young beets for freezing.

Wash gently and sort according to size. Trim tops, leaving _ inch of stem and tap root intact to prevent bleeding of color during cooking.

Cook in boiling water until tender -- for small beets (1 inch in diameter) 25 to 30 minutes; for medium beets (2 to 2 1/2 inches in diameter) 45 to 50 minutes.

Cool promptly in cold water or ice water. Carefully rub peel away and trim the stem and root.

Cut into slices or cubes. Package, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Seal and freeze for up to one year at zero degrees.<hr>Beet Roesti with Rosemary Recipe
Ingredients
1 to 1-1/2 pounds beets
1 tsp coarsely chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup flour
2 Tbsp butter

Instructions
Trim the beets and peel them as you would potatoes; grate them in a food processor or by hand. Begin preheating a medium to large non-stick skillet over medium heat.

Toss the grated beets in a bowl with the rosemary and salt, then add about half the flour; toss well, add the rest of the flour, then toss again.

Place the butter in the skillet and heat until it begins to turn nut-brown. Scrape the beet mixture into the skillet, shape it into a nice circle, and press it down with a spatula. Turn the heat to medium-high and cook, shaking the pan occasionally, until the bottom of the beet cake is nicely crisp, 6 to 8 minutes.

Slide the cake out onto a plate, top with another plate, invert the two plates, and slide the cake back into the pan. Continue to cook, adjusting the heat if necessary, untl the second side is browned. Cut into wedges and serve immediately.

Yield: 4 servings

borscht?

Boil a few. Separately boil a few carrots. A few potatoes. Peel and dice all. Mix in some frozen peas - you don't have to cook them. I like some diced red onion as well. Dressing is mayonnaise, preferably homemade. Salade Russe.

In the Greek style?

Boiled, peeled and slice, left to marinade for a while (only an hour or so) in EV olive oil and thinly sliced garlic - delicious.

Liquidise it and run yer tractor on 'em.

#22 I add finely chopped chilli to mine too.

Red Flannel Hash?

Bloody hell, who'd have thought you could do so much with a beetroot. Thats for the ideas, I've got enough of the stuff to try them all I reckon.

You can beat an egg but you cant beet a root....
do this:

in a roll/ sandwich/ foccaccia:
spinach
mushroom
tomato
lots of beetroot
tomato sauce
toast it- yummmmm

or add to yoghurt, garlic and corriander and make a dip...

Of course every good Australian hamburger comes with a slice or two of pickled beetroot.

Australian hamburger with the lot

Large bun with sesame seeds
BBQ sauce (can use Ketchup if you insist)
Large homemade meat patty
Fried onions (lots)
Fried egg
Bacon
Slice of canned pineapple (fried)
Large slice of beetroot
sliced tomato
lettuce

Ever tried juicing beetroot with apples?

The idea came from a apple juice stall at Borough market... It was pretty and delicately pink with a distinct beetroot and sweet apple taste.

roast them (only a tiny bit of olive oil poured on top)

or make a risotto with it. delicious.

or follow the recipes above for salads and soups.

i hear - but have not tested - that you can eat it raw... (?????????????)

I've had beets raw & julienned at a salad bar. A bit if a crunch to them. I think I prefer them cooked.

You can make jam also. Good with some ginger added (what isn't?) and served with afternoon tea. Preferably sweet tea in glasses Russian style.