Beets! From our garden!!

 We spent some time in the garden this week - never enough, you understand, just in snippets, and it's been so very very very hot (she says, sliding around in her chair from all the sweat! at 10:00 at night!), but we do what we can - picking what needed to be picked before heading off for a smoothie along the river (it was a bribe. what can I say?).  There were beautiful and bountiful beans!

 The always-luscious bouquet of kale...

 And some very picturesque dill.  Ani wanted me to be sure to see how really beautiful it is from the underneath...it made for some very nice artwork later in the afternoon.

 But what we were excited about were the beets! There weren't many, but we love beets, and we've planted more where we harvested 40 bulbs of garlic (us! garlic! 40 bulbs!!!!), so we can luxuriate in our measly 3.

 We love beets in many ways, but I thought I'd share two of our favorites today.

Both of these recipes call for roasted beets. If the beets are small, I will cut off the root end and the greens (save them!) and wash them off before putting them whole into the pan.  If they are large I will halve or quarter them.  Add a bit of water to the bottom of the dish, cover, and roast for 1/2 hour or more at 375 (my oven runs hot).  They are done when a fork pierces them easily.  Once they have cooled, it is easy (though still messy - they are beets) to peel them.

Roasted Beet Dip - also known as Beet Love
4 roasted beets
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 cup cashews
6 TBS olive oil
2 TBS red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar
salt

Blend. Adjust vinegar and seasonings. Eat.  This recipe originally called for walnuts, but I use cashews because they're creamier.  We dip things into this, spread it on sandwiches and generally just love it.

Roasted Beet Salad
4 roasted beets
lightly wilted beet greens, cut in strips and pieces
2 scallions, chopped fine
1/2 cup or so feta
1/4 cup or so toasted pumpkin seeds
dressing: 3 TBS olive oil
                2 TBS balsamic vinegar
                3/4 tsp dijon mustard
                fresh basil, salt and pepper

I like to let this salad chill a bit, but basically you just toss it all together and enjoy!!