Delicious beet roots, stems, and greens! |
Yesterday I helped dad thin out the veggies that were planted far too close together, he said if we didn't pull some out they'd overcrowd each other and never grow to their full potential.
So we pulled up and killed about half of the plants in the garden. I joked that we were no better than Thanos, but he didn't get it...
Oh well.
A lot of the plants just went right back into the compost...
Too bad.
but...
EVERY part of the beet is edible: the roots, the stems, and the leaves! So we cooked up the beets we pulled out- it's my dad's recipe, and it's one of my favorite meals from the garden!
INGREDIENTS: Beet greens, butter, lemon juice, pistachios
Cold water keeps them fresh |
2) Then we washed them in cold water, to remove the bugs and dirt and prevent them from wilting too soon.
3) We trimmed away any bad parts (There were hardly any), cut the stems from the leaves, and sorted them- stems and roots in one bowl, greens in another.
4) Prep your pan! On medium heat, we melted a lot of butter in the sautee pan, and sprinkled in a good amount of garlic powder.
In the pan! Smelled so good |
6) After about 5 minutes, we tossed in the stems and the tiny beet roots only! We cut them to about 1/2 an inch and threw them in. Let them cook for a little while, till the stems seem tender. (Save the greens for last, they cook very fast)
7) Add lemon juice to the roots, stems, and pistachios; we used half a lemon.
8) Once the stems were tender, we threw in the greens! They only need to cook until they wilt, because they are so young. Dad said, if they were older plants we'd have needed to cook them longer.
8) Done!!! The steam coming off of them smelled so good!
This is my dad's recipe, but feel free to use it. It's my favorite way to have cooked greens, and one of my favorite dishes of all time.
Harold's Nutty Beets |