My introduction to beets

The other night I was browsing through my copy of How It All Vegan. Considering how I've owned this cookbook for about 10 years now, I was surprised to find several interesting-looking recipies I had yet to try. We're lucky to have so many vegan cookbooks to choose from these days. But, you know how it goes...a new cookbook comes out and you get all excited about it, and the result is that your old cookbooks get neglected. Until one day you pull them out and go, "Oh my God this looks awesome, why have I never made this?"

The first new/old recipe I attempted was the Garden Vegetable Borscht. Confession time! I had never eaten a beet before! When I went to the supermarket, I had no idea what I was looking for. I wandered around the produce section and finally asked a worker, who informed me that they only sell the canned variety. Uh, OK. So I used canned beets, adding them near the end so they wouldn’t get mushy. And the soup turned out just fine.





It’s so pretty, isn’t it? It tasted really vegetable-y and flavorful. I was surprised that the beets tasted sorta like celery. I thought they would be potato-like.

I had ½ can of beets leftover (I didn't know how much to put in -- a whole can probably would have also worked). I wasn’t sure what to do with them. I also had ½ can of chickpeas that I had been giving Jackson to nibble on. I decided to make some beet hummus.

Beet Hummus
½ can chickpeas
½ can beets (drained)
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. oregano
½ tsp. salt.
Puree all ingredients in a food processor. Thin with water as desired.



When in doubt, make a hummus, right? I literally could not get a picture without Jackson trying to get his hands in it! I think the beautiful bright fuschia color attracted him. He loved dipping tortilla chips in it. Winner!