MI Love: Beets

Sugar beets are a major cash crop in Michigan. In fact, Rebecca and I buy Pioneer sugar, which is made from them. (Yet another attempt to Buy Michigan.)

Yesterday I cooked my first beets ever. I've eaten them before, but I can't say that I had any idea how to prepare them. I'm not sure where these beets were from originally, but I bought them from Horrock's Farm Market, so I supported a local business in some way.

I had it in my head that I should boil them, but I'm glad I Googled - I learned that roasting is a good option, and that seemed potentially less messy. So I spritzed my beets with olive oil (using my Misto bottle, which is an eco-friendly, purer alternative to commercial aerosol oils) and wrapped them up in foil, then baked them for something like two hours at around 375F. (I can't tell you the exact time because I started checking them after 50 minutes and kept putting them back for another 20. According to the website I viewed, age and size of the beets affects baking time so much that that's basically how it goes.)

When they came out, they looked like this. After they cooled, I scraped the skin off with a spoon. (The beet roasting directions said that the beets would just slip out of their skin, but that was a lie.)

Next I pureed the beets in my food processor (in two batches, since my food processor was acquired during an apartment transition and is very small).

What did I do then? Read the next post to find out.