Surprise Beets

I have never eaten beets before. Although most of my food-phobias come from my very picky father, I think I can fairly blame this one on my mom, who suffered through many a canned and/or pickled beet in her childhood. For as long as I can remember, she has said that the only food she doesn't like is beets.

This week and last week we got about 5 beets as part of the weekly farm share. Last week, I tossed them in the bottom drawer of the fridge (aka where odd produce goes to die) and didn't think too much about them. This week, they were a little bigger and slightly more appetizing-looking, so I decided to be brave and give it a try. What's the worst that can happen? Order a pizza, that's what. (Famous last words.)

I consulted a couple of cookbooks and decided to go for roasting the beets. I chopped the beets (2 weeks worth) into 1 in. cubes, tossed with olive oil, salt, and pepper, then roasted them at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

I vaguely remembered seeing roasted beets on a salad with white cheese on some food blog, so I washed some salad greens (also from the farm share - I could eat salad 3 meals a day every week and probably not run out!), tossed in some homemade oil & vinegar dressing, and added feta cheese.

The result? Pretty darn tasty! Actually, roasted beets taste almost exactly like roasted sweet potatoes or carrots. Yum!