Garden to table: Roasted beets

Last week I cooked the beet greens, today I cooked the beets themselves. I like beets prepared in any manner. Pickled, thinly sliced raw in a salad, and roasted. My husband only likes them roasted, so that's how I made them this time.

This is right after they came out of the ground last week, and had the tops removed and a rinse-off with the water hose. I let them dry and then stored them in the refrigerator in a plastic storage bag:

I further cleaned them, by scrubbing in the sink with a vegetable brush, then peeling the thick outer skin off and trimming away the root end and the base of the greens up top. Then cut them into halves and quarters, depending on the size of the beet.  The pink and white striped beets are a variety called "Chiogga", the solid ones are just common beets, and there are a very few pieces of yellow golden beets as well:

After they were peeled and sliced, I tossed them with a little bit of olive oil, some ground white pepper, a little bit of salt, and a little bit of onion powder. And then spread them out in a single layer in a pan. I baked them at 400 for 20 minutes, then gave them a good stir, spread them back out across the pan, and baked them for another 20 minutes:

Roasting the beets gave them a very mild and sweet flavor, you want to cook them until they are fork tender, but not overcooked. No need for a sauce, the olive oil and bit of onion powder makes into a bit of a glaze while they cook.  They really don't need any seasoning when they're this young and fresh, but the tiny bit of onion powder really works well with the sweetness of the beets.

That's it for the beets from my garden, I will for certain be planting them again. I think that Fall is the only good season to grow them here, but I will try some in late Winter just to see if they do anything or not.

Garden haul!

Here are some of the things I've picked from my garden over the past few days. Lots of cucumbers, including one monster one that had been hiding away behind the lattice the vines are growing up. I try and pick them before they get so big, because they're still sweet and tender and the seeds aren't tough. But occasinally one gets missed and turns into a whopper. There are still at least ten more baby cukes on the vines. No more flowers, too cool for that now, but I'll have at least one more little picking worth of cucumbers before they're done for the season. I also got the last two eggplant, the plants need to come up now to make room for more carrots. And poblano peppers too. There are still a lot of small ones on the plants, and a bunch of tiny jalapenos finally too. The beans are a mix of green and burgundy bush beans. There are some still on the plants, and a few blooms too. But I think the bulk of the beans have already been picked and enjoyed.

I took a couple of the cucumbers, and just rinsed and sliced them into rounds, and mixed them with a "dressing" made from some nonfat plain bulgarian yogurt, a little bit of Penzey's Mural of Flavor seasoning, some finely sliced green onion (white and green parts) and a pinch of salt. I usually use dill, but my Dear Friend had brought me a gift box of four small jars of salt-free seasonings, and I wanted to try out the Mural of Flavor, since I had never tasted it before. It's awfully good! The green beans, we boiled until just fork tender but still crunchy. And tossed them with a tiny bit of melted butter, some Penzey's Forward seasoning (from the same gift box) and a pinch of salt too. Very good as well.. It's funny how the burgundy beans turn green as soon as they hit that boiling water. The poblano peppers are going into my Southwestern omlettes for breakfast, and the eggplant will go in with some zucchini and tomato to have with pasta and chicken breast for supper tomorrow. The rest of the cucumbers are going to become salad for the Thanksgiving table at the inlaws' house.