Nourishing beets and beats
May 13th, 2009
Generally, I avoid them. What a pain the butt, turning my hands pink for days and staining the countertop! But there have been some beautiful looking organic beets at the store lately, catching my eye, whispering sweet nothings as I passed by with my cart.
I had to have them.
Beets are fabulously full of healthy nutrients including: folate, manganese, fiber, potassium, iron and copper. But what I love most about them is their natural sugars. Beets are extremely high in sugar, yet super low in calories. This is something every food manufacturer strives for but only Mother Nature has perfected!
Now one funny thing about beets is that most recipes call for using the round root part of the plant and ignore those gorgeous green leaves on top. Shame! Beet greens are healthy and tasty and go great with the beets themselves…duh. See, it’s Mother Nature again, being such a smarty pants to pair these things together, naturally. With some careful preparation and a few seasonings, my beets came together in a lovely salad and nothing got stained in the process. So go for it:
Beets From Top to Bottom with Mint
adapted from Three Bowls Cookbook by David Scott and Tom Pappas
2 lbs. bunch of beets, scrubbed
1 lemon, juiced
1 lime, juiced
1 big handful of mint leaves, rinsed and chopped roughly
1 Tbl. olive oil
S+P to taste
1. Preheat oven or toaster oven to 400 degrees.
2. Chop greens off of beet bulbs and set aside.
3. Wrap beets in aluminum foil, tightly seal and bake for 1 hour or until fork-tender. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature.
4. When cool enough to touch, unwrap and hold beet under running tap water as you use your fingers to peel the skin off. When all are peeled, chop into big chunks and place in a large bowl.
5. Rinse beet greens and chop. Add to the bowl.
6. Add mint, lemon, lime, oil, S+P and mix well.
This salad keeps well if you have leftovers, just cover and keep refrigerated.
It’s a great recipe so I hope you get to try it this summer. But remember, you can eat all the beets, all the broccoli, all the sprouts in the world…and if you’re unhappy in your life or career or relationship you really can’t thrive. Right? In my work with clients, we call these lifestyle aspects “Primary Foods.” So forget food for a second. What do you LOVE to do? What nourishes you more than food ever could?
Sometimes it’s hard to remember to do the things you love. It sometimes it feels silly to admit your love of sewing doll clothes or collecting rocks. Why is that?
One thing I love to do is sing. I have a terrible, terrible singing voice but I love to sing anyway. It’s a tough one because I can’t be in a band or join a chorus…I need to sing somewhere that my voice can’t be heard and it doesn’t matter if I’m on key. That’s why I fell in love with kirtan – traditional call-and-response chanting from the yoga tradition. The energy in a room full of people singing together is amazing. And no one can hear me above the sound of the instruments and all the voices. Perfect!
Last Friday my yoga studio here in Boston hosted a kirtan with Girish.
Sorry for dimly lit iPhone picture, but here’s Girish!
Skipping a night of the usual Friday happenings, I headed on down and sang my little heart out. I felt badly for the people sitting next to me, but otherwise it felt so good to belt it out! Girish sang and played the harmonium while his drummer played all sorts of percussion instruments. People in the crowd sang and danced and broke out their own mini instruments and I felt like, truly, no one cared if I was off key. It felt like everyone was so alive and happy and without judgement, suspended from real life for just a few hours.
Now THAT’s nourishment.
This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays, hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.
