Help! I'm drowning in beetroots!

[Ceres]

Well not quite drowning :lol but I have somewhat of a glut situation. The neighbours won't even take any off my hands! I normally roast beetroot with other vegies but I am wondering if anyone else has any brilliant ideas. I remember a beetroot chocolate cake, has anyone tried that?

[Beatrice]

You could try pickling them :)

[~*heket*~]

I was gonna suggest roasting. You can also eat them raw in salads, or boil them with sugar, salt and a bit of vinegar and store them for ages in the purple juice. What about a beetroot and yoghurt dip? mmmmmm!

[Mama_Kaz]

Yummm I love beetroot...Im so coming to your place soon :eager Or you could bring beetroot products to our next meet up :lol

[Blossomtime]

They're yummy juiced with other things. Beetroot and chocolate muffins are winner here (recipe below). Salads are great with beetroot, we make a yummy beetroot and blood orange salad... Use them to dye yarn or fabric...

Beetroot and Chocolate Muffins – Stephanie Alexander – Kitchen Garden Cooking With Kids

80g butter softened
1 large beetroot (over 250g)
175g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
2 tbsp cocoa
1 large or 2 bantam eggs
¼ cup milk
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup castor sugar
½ cup well-packed brown sugar
100g dark chocolate (enough for 12 squares)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Peel and grate beetroot
Sift flour, baking powder and cocoa into bowl, then sift again (double sift) – I’m lazy, I don’t double sift.
Lightly whisk together eggs and milk
Combine butter, oil and 2 kinds of sugar in food processor. Process until creamy. Gradually add the egg and milk mixture. – I just use a hand mixer. Again, lazy.
Fold the sifted dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, then stir in grated beetroot.
Spoon into greased muffin tin.
Poke a square of chocolate on top of each muffin.
Bake for 20-25mins. Cool in tin before turning onto wire rack.

[Ceres]

Cool, thanks for the recipe! I love beetroot in juice too, but I don't have a juicer.

[bella]

I grated some yesterday with carrot (3 beets to 1 carrot). It's in a bowl in the fridge. It went with last night's tea, then with salad today and tonight in the falafel wraps too. It's yummy and versatile. If there were some left, I'd put it in a cake. :) When I've juiced beetroot I've had it with carrot and celery, so I guess it goes with those? Our WWOOFer the other week put beetroot in our stirfry. Turned everything pink but the kids loved it - novelty - bright pink dinner!

[Ceres]

Oh thanks Bella that sounds like a "grate" idea :lol if it's sitting in the fridge ready to go I'm sure I'll remember to put it in stuff.

[Asrathiel]

There's a beetroot relish recipe on my blog somewhere which is yummy

[Ceres]

Found it - thanks :)

[~*heket*~]

"grate" That's the worlds worst pun, I love it :rofl

so what was wrong with MY suggestions hey??? Not good enough for you aren't they??? *getting VERY snooty*

[Ceres]

Don't worry there's still plenty 'o' beetroots for the rest of the suggestions :P

[bella]

Roasted the last of our beetroots today in little cubes. Soooo yummy in a salad. :)

[~*heket*~]

I love roast beetroot :eager

[Ceres]

Beetroot glut is over. Now I just need recipes for about 50kg of zucchinis!

[~*heket*~]

frittata, soup, roasted, stuffed .... is that a good start?

stop gardening wouja? :lol

[Ceres]

But I looooove it! Everyone who comes to my house has to take home a zucchini or 3 this week. Anyway my chooks are coming soon so they will help deal with the overload.

[~*heket*~]

:yay

I used to love gardening, then as an adult I developed this almost OCD fear of DIRT on my hands (soil dirt). And when folk say to me "get some gloves" all that comes to mind is that soil would go into them and get my hands dirty :lol :bang

[Ceres]

And you call yourself an earth sign.
Pfft!

[bella]

LOL - this (http://belindamoore.com/zucchini-slice/) is our fave zucchini recipe.

I love them sauteed with onion and tomatoes (even tinned diced tomatoes) and pepper. I used to DETEST this as a kid, but love it now. It goes well with mashed potato - yum.

There's heaps of recipes for chocolate cakes with zucchini and the like, but I've never bothered... Stir-fry, curry, grated into pasta sauce, in patties, vegie soup and the two ideas above and we've always been able to handle our zucchini gluts. ;) But there's always 8 or more of us here for meals, that helps!

[~*heket*~]

I'm a bit of a wussy earth sign aren't I :lol

[Janet]

Gawd I love beetroot. Zucchini can also go in chocolate cakes and I adore it grated and gently fried with lots of butter and garlic, dash of chilli then add to pasta and cheese. Phwoar. Last night on River Cottage Autumn, Hugh did a Beetroot Bazaar where they did all sweet stuff with their beetroots. The brownies, of course, but also beetroot icecream (OMG the colour!) and beetroot and apple crumble. It all looked divine! Use a vegie peeler on zucchini and make beautiful strips for vegie fry ups or instead of pasta too.

[Asrathiel]

Oh yum, the zucchini thing sounds great! If any of our zucchinis actually decide to grow, I'll try that :D

[Ceres]

It must be that beetrooty time of year again. I have just pulled up some to make beetroot dip. Just looking for a good recipe now!

[Ceres]

Ingredients (serves 6)



1 bunch beetroot
1 head garlic
olive oil cooking spray
1 cup low-fat yoghurt
2 tablespoons dill, finely chopped
Extra dill and grissini (see note), to serve

Method



Preheat oven to 200°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Trim beetroot, leaving 1cm stalks attached. Cut 5mm off the top of the head of garlic.
Place beetroot and garlic onto prepared baking tray. Spray with oil. Roast for 45 to 50 minutes or until tender when tested with a skewer. Set aside for 15 minutes to cool.
Gently peel and discard skin from beetroot. Squeeze garlic flesh from head.
Roughly chop beetroot. Place into a food processor with garlic flesh. Process until smooth. Transfer to a glass bowl. Stir in yoghurt, dill, and salt and pepper. Cover. Refrigerate for 3 hours to allow flavours to develop. Transfer to a serving bowl. Garnish with dill. Serve with grissini.




I don't have any dill - what else would work?

[irishwillow]

It would be a different flavour, but I reckon fresh Thyme would be nice with that...especially lemon thyme...YUM!!! Or a dash of thyme and a dash of parsley...or celery leaves???? Even mint and parsley would be nice I reckon.

[Ceres]

I have parsley, normal thyme and lemon balm...

[GreenGully]

I'm looking forward to this! Yum!

[Belinda]

I'd go with mint and parsley and make it middle eastern. The other ingerdients sound a bit like that.

[Ceres]

Sadly I have no mint!
The beetroots are roasting now, once it's blended with the yogurt I'll taste it and see what I think it needs.

[Kris]

Mmmm. Sounds delish. If you're feeling Christmassy you could always make beetroot fruitcake (just add beetroot to recipe and reduce the amount of fruit).

[Ceres]

The beetroot dip is yum - I didn't end up adding any herbs because it tasted so good as it was. It needed a fair whack of salt to make it work. I think mint would be great in it too.

[Janet]

Mmmm beetroot...