Recipe of the Month: How to BEET the Winter Blues

If you are a beet lover, this is the perfect recipe to add to your collection and if not, you may find a new found love for them if you give this recipe a shot. Beets can provide the body with a wide variety of vitamins and minerals. Specifically, dietary nitrates contained in beets have been shown to improve the efficiency of muscles during exercise.This recipe was originally inspired from here. {My version has a few added ingredients and omits over ½ the amount of sugar}.

Ingredients:

6 large beets, washed and peeled
2 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp dried thyme
½ tsp dried rosemary
½ c balsamic vinegar
¼ tsp sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp orange zest
sea salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 400 F and line a baking sheet with tin foil.  Wash and peel beets and place on baking sheet, top with olive oil, thyme, rosemary and salt and pepper to taste. Cover the beets with another sheet of tin foil, creating a seal and bake for 1 hour. After 1 hour, stir beets around and test with a fork.  If the fork easily goes into the beet, they are done. If not, continue to bake checking every 15 minutes until done. Remove from oven and let beets cool completely.

Meanwhile heat balsamic and sugar over high heat until it forms a syrup like consistency and remove from heat.

Once beets are cool, cut into small cubes place in serving dish. Drizzle balsamic glaze over the beets and top with orange and lemon zest. Serve and enjoy!

Bridget Baxter
BridgetBaxter.com