Beets Nutrition Facts and Cooking Methods
Beets are very nutritional and healthy root vegetables. Beetroots juice is a common ingredient for healthy diet recipes. This root vegetable can be eaten raw or as salads, cooked as a vegetable as a side dish to the main course of meal.
Have you ever tried eating fresh beets? In a grocery store, they will not look very tempting; covered with soil and a funny purple colour.
Not many are tempted to eat this purple coloured vegetable. Beetroot, when well-prepared can be a very tasty and healthy dish.
Selection and Storage
Preparation Methods
To cook beetroots, first wash them in cold running water to remove the soil and dirt. Then plunge them in boiling water with its stems. Add a little bit of salt and vinegar. When it cools down you should be able to peel the skin.Ideas for Recipes
- When you buy raw beetroots, grate them finely and have it as appetizers with vinegar and olive oil or simply by adding salad sauce.
- Pre-cooked beetroots are ideal for salad dressings.
- You can also find them as pickles in stores and very popular in South American houses.
- In Indian gastronomy, it is used to prepare meat curry dishes.
- Beet juice is also a very popular healthy drink.
Some History
The botanical name for the beet is Beta Vulgaris. It belongs to the Amaranthaceous family. It is more commonly known as ‘beetroot’ or ‘garden beet’; a purple root vegetable. Beet is also cultivated as a leaf vegetable. The different varieties of beet vegetables are: Chard: A green leafy vegetable commonly used in Mediterranean recipes. It is a highly nutritious leaf but its roots are not as nutritious. Other common names are; spinach beet, Swiss chard, Silver beet, etc. Sugar beet: It is a plant whose tubers contain high quantity of sugar. It is commercially produced for the production of sugar and molasses. The beet has a long historical background for its cultivation, most probably, going back to the second millennium BC. According to history, the plant was used for the first time for domestic purpose along the Mediterranean region. The beetroot was also used for medicinal purposes. The first recipes were published around the second century. This is when a variety of cultivation was developed of red, white and yellow roots and of high nutritional quality.