Garden Cleanup Beet Salad
September 13th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Posted in Blog, dinner, garden
Beets come in all kinds of colors
We planted amaranth in the kitchen garden for show again this year. Their big, red tassles of grains make a big display. But we ready needn’t have spread new seed. There was plenty already in the ground from last year, as it turned out. We had so many volunteers that you could hardly see where we’d planted the beets and Swiss chard. Consequently, I pretty much forgot about that part of the garden.
After the annual fall garden cleanup this week, and removing all the amaranth, the beets made made themselves known. I harvested a bunch and cooked them in a pot of water on the stove to make one of our favorite salads with ripe tomato and purple onion.
Just cut everything into bite-size pieces and dress with olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt. I would have liked some torn mint leaves on this salad. Or, even better, anise hyssop. The colors are great, no?
A beet salad certainly livens up our plate
Perhaps even better than the beet roots are the green tops. These are hard to find fresh in any store or farmers market. They almost have to be prepared immediately after the beets are pulled from the ground. I soak them in a sink full of cold water, then shake them off and saute them in a heavy skillet with olive oil and finely chopped garlic. A little salt is all the seasoning they need. But they are also excellent with a drizzle of Balsamic vinegar.
Here’s the finished beet salad and the greens together with some of the salmon left over from our cookout last weekend. This made a fine Saturday supper.
Beautiful. I’m going to try this with a bit of goat cheese crumbled on top. Thanks!