Trimming beets

I feared beets. I have a vague taste memory: cloyingly sweet sauce, crumbly texture, and a hint of mud. I must have had canned beets, and it did NOT go well, but I can’t dredge up any actual memories other than that sickly sweet taste.

My wife is a big beet fan and begged me to try them. No way. I draw the line here. Beets on one side, everything else on the other. Beets made my stomach do barrel rolls.

As I got into cooking, I couldn’t escape. Colorful beet salads, roasted beet side dishes, traditional beet soups. I held out. Then I focused on local, seasonal produce, and a regular shopper at my farmers market. In the summer, Ohio’s farms overwhelmed us with their variety. In the winter? My local vegetables are all about storing root vegetables and hearty greens. Sure, I love carrots and potatoes…but every week? By the time February rolls in, cold and bleak, I’m desperate for something new. That’s when the beets got me. I picked up a bunch and brought them home.

I read many times about roasted beets, and how much better they were than canned. I should have listened, because roasted beets were…good? I liked them? I was shaken. My one food fear crumbled.

(I was also surprised by the mess. There were hints in the recipes, but no one came out and said: “Your kitchen will look like a crime scene, red beet juice splattered everywhere.” ¹)

Beet fingers! Aaah!

Beets are now part of my fall and winter rotation. But beets take forever to roast. When I found out about pressure cooker beets, I had to try it. Pressure cooked beets are good. They don’t have the extra caramelized flavor that comes from roasting, but I’ll happily eat these beets, even with my beet phobia.

Here’s the Recipe:

Pressure Cooker Beets with Blue Cheese [DadCooksDinner.com]

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Related Posts

Grilled Beets
Pressure Cooker Roasted Sweet Potato Puree
Pressure Cooker Refried Pinto Beans

Enjoyed this post? Want to help out DadCooksDinner? Subscribe to DadCooksDinner using the RSS or Email options on the right, recommend DadCooksDinner to your friends, buy something from Amazon.com through the links on this site, or donate through my tip jar. Thank you.

1. I’m hiding this part in a footnote, because it doesn’t seem appropriate for a food blog. But…I didn’t know that beets turn your pee red. I went to the bathroom the next morning, and: “Ohmygod, I must have internal bleeding. Take me to the emergency room right n…what’s that? It’s the beets? Oh. Never mind then.” ↩