Don't skip a beet

High in nutrients, this root can be cooked in more than one way. Roast it or use its juice for a healthy and appealing dish.

When I go to the farmers market this summer, I am going to buy something new. While I usually load the basket with my beloved asparagus, strawberries and sugar snap peas, I intend to walk to the backs of the stands, where bunches of radishes, kale, beets and spinach await like wallflowers hoping for a dance.

Grandma's special

First, the beets. They are perfect: small, round and firm, with beautiful leaves. I had prepared them in culinary school but, until recently, I had never cooked beets in my own kitchen.

I kept a distance for a long time because, to me, beets came out of jars. My grandmother served them sliced, with no adornment, as part of her cold luncheon spreads. I passed by beets in the so-called "appetising" cases of delicatessens.

They would be slathered with a pink-tinged sour cream or mixed with hard-cooked eggs, also pink. The only other beets I saw were the shards in bottled borscht (beet soup) and the cooked beets found in certain sections of the supermarket.

Unique flavour

When I found a beet mentor, I started to see the vegetable in a new light —at least, I began enjoying eating it. My mother-in-law roasts the beets she buys at the market, dices them and dresses them up with homemade vinaigrette. Delicious.

On really warm days, she just slices the roasted beets, then sprinkles a little salt and drizzles some oil. Simple and delicious.

Roasted beets are sweet, with a meaty texture that lets them stand alone or hold their own against strong flavours, such as vinegar, citrus, mustard, ginger and mint, as well as any sweet-and-sour components you can dream up.

Balsamic vinegar fortified with a little brown sugar can be turned into a glaze; classic vinaigrettes work, too. I have had success mixing beets with orange, making a salad that tastes as good as it looks.

As for nutrition, beets are a hands-down winner. They are rich in the highly desirable vitamin B: folate, and also contain potassium, manganese and fibre. Their antioxidant properties are much touted, with some folks attributing the long lives of borscht-eating Russians to beets. But I will leave the science to more qualified sources.

When choosing beets, remember: You get what you see. Firm beets with little or no bruising are best. Generally, the smaller the beet, the sweeter it will be. I pick smaller beets for dishes that call for whole beets and larger ones for dishes that require slicing or dicing.

Colourful touch

If you find golden beets, try them. They are just as delicious and you can pair them with the more common red beets for an attractive look. If you are really lucky, you can even find chioggia beets; their candy-striped interior sets them apart and they can be prepared in the same way as other varieties.

To store beets for more than a day or two, remove the greens before the beets go into the refrigerator, where they can last a few weeks. In my new cooking adventures with beets, I am taking cues from the dishes that I find popping up on menus of restaurants that feature local produce.

What I have found are lots of roasted beets dressed with strong flavours. Though beets can be boiled, I prefer to roast them.

I do them in the cool of the morning as they hold well at that time.

To roast them, trim the greens off the top, leaving about 2 inches of stalk, which will come in handy during the peeling process. (The greens are great when stir-fried or added to soups; treat them as you would spinach.)

Rinse the beets and wrap them in a heavy-duty aluminum foil. Roasting small beets can take 30 to 45 minutes while larger ones can take 1 to 1-1/2 hours. You will know they are ready when a small knife easily pierces the flesh.

When you are ready to do the peeling, a pair of disposable gloves will save your hands from the colouring effects of the beet juice. You could hold the beet in one hand and use a paper towel to slip off the skin or use a small paring knife to peel it back. Trim the root and the beets are ready to eat.

Home remedies

If you do get red-stained hands, try a few home remedies to de-beet yourself. Rubbing your hands with coarse salt helps while lemon juice also does the trick. I use wood-fibre cutting boards as they don't stain the way wood and plastic boards do.

Beet juice itself has its fans, especially for colouring drinks. Want pink lemonade? Just add a few drops of beet juice.

Beet juice can give your red sauces a deeper, richer hue; try it the next time you whip up some spaghetti sauce.

And, it can transform a blended green vegetable juice into a veggie cocktail that is way more appealing to the eye.