Beet This!

Last night’s CSA box contained a small bunch of small beets. (That’s small beets squared, for you math types.)

I love roasted beets -- served hot as a side dish, or cooled and sliced on top of arugula with crumbled goat cheese and pecans. But I really didn’t feel like killing this unusually crisp and cool summer day by running my oven at 450.

So I thought maybe I’d just keep the beets around for a while… but we all know how THAT turns out. Seven months from now, I’d find them at the back of my produce drawer, growing fifth-generation penicillin.

Instead, I decided to use them raw. (Uh-huh, yes you can. You wouldn’t want to eat big ol’ chunks of uncooked beets, but if you shred them, they are delicious in cold salads.)

My favorite cold-shredded-beet recipe is a wheat berry salad I found in a free booklet from Whole Foods a few years ago. But I can only get wheat berries back at Whole Foods (so much for “free” booklet…) and I didn’t feel like battling their bumper-car parking lot this morning. And besides, wheat berries have to be soaked overnight and contain gluten, which a growing number of my Very-Most-Favorite people cannot eat. So I just went ahead and made the salad with brown rice, and it came out really well.

It’s a little chewy and a little zingy; sweet and savory.  Because the beets are so finely grated, they don’t have that beet-y taste that a lot of people hate… and they turn the whole dish a delightful shade of magenta. Beware, though: They will turn your hands and your clothes a much LESS delightful shade of magenta, so wear gloves and something other than your favorite white shirt when handling the beets.

Brown Rice, Beet and Citrus Salad

Cook 1 C (raw measure) short-grain brown rice according to package directions. (Short-grain rice is nuttier and chewier, so it more closely resembles wheat berries.)

Toss cooked rice with 1 Tablespoon canola oil, and let cool.

Meanwhile, wash, peel and then finely grate two  2-3” beets.

Add the beets to the rice, along with 1 Cup raisins or currants and three scallions, thinly sliced.

Add 1 or 2 carrots, grated, and the grated zest and juice of one lemon and one small orange.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Serves 6-8 as a side dish. To make this into a main dish for 4, just add some cubes of cold roast or poached skinless chicken, and serve on a bed of lettuce.