My New Found Relationship with Beets

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As the winter begins to wear on,  I often think about warmer weather and the past summer.  Sometimes I scroll through our pictures on cold days, usually looking at pictures of our homestead, and I am always drawn to pictures of food.  Today I stumbled upon this picture and it drew my attention immediately.  It looked like comfort food, like something I’d love to eat on a cold day.  I remembered the story of how this meal came to be.  Sometimes a meal is an old favorite, and sometimes it is a conscious decision to try something new, but this meal was a little different.  One day I posted a picture on Instagram of some beautiful beets that we had grown.

I always boiled beets and loved them prepared that way.  But one of my IG friends suggested that I roast them.  So I decided to try some roasted beets.  Immediately I realized that those beautiful beets were going to be awfully lonely.  So I began searching for other root veggies that might want to join the party.  We have a big garden and it was late in the year so I had no problem finding guests.  We had potatoes of all colors and beautiful ox-heart carrots. After a little more searching We found some turnips and some very sticky, sweet garlic.

We now had the makings of a wonderful dish.  We peeled all of the veggies with the exception of the potatoes.  Next we cubed all the veggies so the were roughly the same size to make them cook evenly.  We took all of the veggies and tossed them in bowl with olive oil and a little salt and pepper to coat them.  Another Instagram friend suggested we toss the beets separate so their color didn’t bleed into the rest of the veggies.  We then placed them in a glass baking pan and added some rosemary we grew.

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We placed them in a 350 degree oven and baked until the veggies were tender.  I was so pleasantly surprised by the flavor of the roasted beets that I may never eat them boiled again.  Another big surprise was the roasted carrots, which were tender and sweeter than boiled carrots.  The whole dish had undertones of roasted garlic and rosemary.  We served it as a side dish, but it could have easily been a main course.  If there had been any leftovers, I am sure they would been a great replacement for hash browns.  A meal that had started as a picture of a beet ended as a roasted medley of deliciousness.  It’s always good to have friends, no matter where you find them.

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