Swedish baked beets

Swedish baked beets are traditionally eaten with salted fish. They are also delicious served with beef, lamb, bison, or wild fowl. Eat this dish however you choose: hot out of the oven, at room temperature, or cold as an alfresco summer picnic dish.

Swedish baked beets

                                                                               Yield: 4-6 servings

Oven: 240℃  (460℉)

Ingredients:

3 medium-sized beets

1 large red onion

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

sea salt

fresh ground black pepper

½ - ¾ cup commercial soured cream

Garnish: 5 -6 sprigs fresh dill

Preparation:

1. Wash beets. Remove beet leaves, leaving about 2.5 cm. (1 in.) of stem attached to the roots.

2. Using 1 tablespoon of olive oil, coat beet roots in oil. Place whole beet roots in an aluminium foil cooking wrap, add a dash of salt and pepper, and close the foil wrap securely. Place the foil wrapped beet roots in a heat-proof baking tray. Bake at 240℃   for approximately 1.5 hours. 

Cooking time required will vary with the beet's size, origin and type, and with your elevation above sea level. Wearing heat-proof oven mitts, test the roots for doneness by gently pressing the them with your fingers.If the root gives way slightly, baking is complete.

3. Peel red onion and slice into 8 to 16 wedges, depending upon the size of the onion. Place onion wedges on a baking tray. Drizzle with the other tablespoon of olive oil. Add salt and pepper, if preferred. Bake at the same time as the beets. The onion wedges should require approximately 20 - 30 minutes if placed below the beet roots. Less time will be required if the wedges are placed high in the oven. 

When the onion wedges are just slightly singed on some tips, remove from the oven, loosely cover, and set aside.

Roasted red onion wedges

4. When the beet roots are baked, remove them from the oven. Slip the peels off. Quarter the beets into wedges and, possibly, divide the wedges again into bite-sized wedges, depending upon the size of the beets.

Baked beets, fresh from the oven

5. Arrange baked beet and red onion wedges in a serving dish or on a serving plate. Either add dollops of sour cream over the vegetables, or place the sour cream in a separate serving dish. Garnish with fresh dill. 

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Portuguese beet and potato casserole

This simple beet casserole can be a meal in itself, or it can be used as an entree. It contains all the health benefits of cooked beets, plus a full range of essential protein and a small portion of fat in the form of butter.

A Portuguese acquaintance described this dish to me, but this recipe is my own version of Portuguese beet and potato casserole. First, rather than simply using ordinary white potatoes, I've used a selection of Little Gems: purple, red and white. Also, I used red onion rather than yellow cooking onion, and Almond milk rather than the dairy milk which would normally found in a Portuguese home.

Portuguese beet and potato casserole

Yield: 4 - 6 servings

Oven: 190℃ (350 ℉)

Ingredients:

1 cup mashed purple, red and white Little Gem potatoes with skins intact

1 cup red onion, thinly sliced

2 medium-sized beet roots, steamed, grated

 2 eggs, lightly beaten

½ cup grated Parmesan

½ cup Almond milk, scalded

 1 tablespoon butter (or ghee), plus 1 teaspoon butter to coat the oven dish

fresh ground sea salt

 fresh ground black pepper corns

Preparation:

1. Prepare oven dish by rubbing the inside with 1 teaspoon of butter. Set aside.

2. Mix the grated beet, mashed potato and sliced onion.

3. Beat eggs lightly, then add Parmesan. Combine. Fold into beet mixture.

4. Add milk, 1 tablespoon of butter, salt, and pepper. Mix. At this point, the mixture will be purple. Have no fear; heat will alter the colour of this mixture.

5. Turn the mixture out into the prepared oven dish.

6. Bake for 50 - 60 minutes. Serve immediately.

Oven fresh Portuguese beet and potato casserole

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Baked beet and black beans with pork

Baked beet and black beans with pork is slow food made in the old-fashioned way. A ceramic bean pot or dutch oven is required for slow baking in a hot oven. The combination of flavours creates a subtle undertone of sweetness that urges your diners to ask for second helpings. Mmmm-mmmm, it will be delicious with your smoked Easter ham.

Baked beet and black beans with pork

Baked beet and black beans with pork is a meal in itself, full of the health benefits of beets and beans, including an abundance of protein, dietary fibre, calcium, and other minerals.

Set oven to 460℉  (240℃)

Cooking time: approximately 4 hours

                                                    

                                                            Yield: 8 - 10 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup dried black beans

2-3 cups water for soaking

6 dried shiitakes

1 cup water for soaking

1 medium beet root, 5 cm. (2.5 in.) in diameter

1 cup diced red onion

2 minced garlic cloves

1 cup lean ground pork

1½ cup diced tomatoes in tomato juice

1 tablespoon old-fashioned prepared mustard

2 tablespoons raw molasses

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

pinch of ground cinnamon

pinch of ground cloves

3-4 grinds of black pepper corns

Dried black beans

Pre-preparation:

1. Wash black beans.  Drain and discard the water. Place beans in a lidded container. Cover beans with 2 - 3 cups water. Cover with lid and leave to soak overnight. 

2. Place shiitakes in a lidded container. Cover with warm water and leave to soak overnight. 

Clockwise: shiitake, diced tomatoes in tomato juice
soaked black beans, and red onion

Preparation:

3. When assembling ingredients, drain the shiitake liquid into a separate container and reserve for later use in cooking. Slice the stems off the shiitakes and store them in the freezer for another time when making stock. Thinly slice the shiitake. place them into the bean pot.

4. Slice and dice red onion, and mince the garlic cloves. Add to the bean pot.

5. Drain water from soaking black beans into a separate container and reserve for later use in cooking. Add beans to the bean pot.

Grated raw beet

6. Wash, thinly peel, and coarsely grate the beet.  Add to bean pot.

7. Measure lean ground pork. Loosen the mince and mix the pork into the ingredients in the bean pot.

8. Add tomatoes, mustard, molasses, apple cider vinegar, pepper, cinnamon and cloves. Mix into ingredients in the bean pot.

9. Add strained liquid reserved from soaking shiitake. If ingredients are not covered with liquid, add strained liquid reserved from soaking black beans but only sufficient to just cover the ingredients.

10. Place in oven at 460℉ ( 240℃) for 20 minutes. Reduce temperature to 425℉  (220℃) and bake for 3 - 4 hours. 

Test the beans for done-ness after 60 minutes. To test, remove one bean from the pot and squish it with an ordinary table fork. If completely soft, the beans are cooked as is everything else in the bean pot, so remove the pot from the oven. Most likely, the baked beet and beans will require at least another hour or two of baking at 425℉. This depends upon a number of factors, including the elevation above sea level where you live; even more than 4 hours of baking time could be required. In any case, bake covered until the beans are soft. Keep the contents covered with liquid by adding strained liquid from soaking the black beans, or use plain hot water.

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Beet, parsnip and sweet pepper soup

Perk up a cold mid-winter evening with the enervating colours and comforting aromas of this pureed soup.

Beet, parsnip and sweet pepper soup

Cooked beet, purple potato and
carrot

Ingredients (red soup):

½ teaspoon coconut oil

½ cup chopped red onion

½ clove garlic, crushed

1 small beet, steamed, peeled, chopped

½  carrot, steamed, peeled, chopped

2 purple potatoes, steamed, peeled, chopped

1 cup beet stock or chicken stock

                                      

Cooked and diced ingredients
for the yellow soup

Ingredients (yellow soup):            

½ teaspoon coconut oil

½ cup chopped white onion

½ clove garlic, crushed

1 parsnip, steamed, peeled, chopped

1 white potato, steamed, peeled, chopped

½ yellow sweet bell pepper, diced

¼ orange sweet bell pepper, diced

1 cup chicken stock

Garnish: 

1 sprig cilantro

Preparation :

1. Use two saucepans. You will cook in both pots at once, treating each mixture separately. Melt ½ teaspoon coconut oil in each pot. Place red onion and garlic in one (the red pot), and white onion and garlic in the second (the yellow pot).

2. To the red pot, add all items listed under Ingredients (red soup).   

Beet soup (red pot)

3. To the yellow pot, add all items listed under Ingredients (yellow soup).

Parsnip and sweet pepper soup (yellow pot)

4.  Simmer both mixtures for 10 minutes.

5. Decant the contents of the red pot into a blender. Pulse at high speed until the mixture is thoroughly pureed. Pour the red puree back into the red pot and reheat over low heat.

Beet puree

6. Thoroughly wash the blender, then decant the contents of the yellow pot into it. Pulse at high speed, as you did with the red mixture. Pour the yellow puree into the yellow pot and reheat. At this point, you may wish to add salt, pepper or other preferred seasonings to each puree.

Parsnip and sweet pepper puree

8. Ladle ¾ cup red puree into one measuring cup and ¾ cup yellow puree into another measuring cup.

9. Simultaneously, pour into a soup bowl from both measuring cups to create the effect shown in the illustration above. Garnish with a sprig of cilantro.

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