Lesson one: leave an inch or two of the stems on the beets so they don't lose their color and stain the water red.
Lesson two: beets stain everything red. Peel them over the garbage, have some paper towels ready and waiting, and wash the cutting board ASAP after chopping them up.
That night I made a delish salad with beets, goat cheese, and homemade honey-roasted peanuts for my lunch the next day. But, on Friday night, I concocted this beauty:
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| Sauteed beet leaves with red onion, beets, and cannelloni beans. |
In my beet tutorial last Monday, I learned that the leaves of the vegetable are similar to kale or spinach when they're sauteed. What bang for your buck! After sauteing the chopped red onion, the I cooked the leaves much like I do escarole. Saute, add chicken broth or water, simmer down, and add the beans at the end. I was holding the few beet pieces for lunch the next day, but I decided that the dish needed color.
The plated dish:
With a side of whole wheat Israeli cous-cous, melted with a mix of mozzarella and a bit of Parmesan:
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| Israeli cous-cous and mozzarella. |
The whole wheat cous-cous was so much heartier than the regular kind I've been eating. I didn't know what I was missing (literally, because I didn't know they made a whole wheat variety)! I never make anything fancy with this stuff...I tend to throw in a bit of parm and call it a side dish. I loved the mixture of parm and mozz...I'm drooling just thinking about it! It looks gloppy and funny in this picture, but it was creamy and melted in my mouth. Look at this texture!
All-in-all, it was a success! It wasn't terribly heavy, which is great, but it could have used some chicken or meat with it. That's for next time. This left me pleased and my stomach satisfied!
