Harvard Beets

My sister ranks beets as one of her all-time favorite foods. I have to admit this somewhat baffles me since it has definitely not been love at first bite for me. I’m determined, however, to find a few staple recipes that I enjoy using beets (especially since so far we get a bunch of them each week in our CSA! I can’t stand wasting food…).

Today I cooked up what was in our fridge using a recipe called Harvard Beets. To date, this is my favorite beet recipe. The beets are boiled until tender and coated in a sweet and sour sauce. This would make a gorgeous side dish and is a really healthy way to incorporate few beets into our diet. The only adjustment I plan to make next time is to reduce the amount of sugar and possibly the vinegar as well. I think that would really help the flavor of the beets to shine through. The recipe calls for 1 bunch of beets but I used 2 (6 small to medium beets) and felt there was still plenty of sauce.

From The Good Housekeeping Cookbook

Servings: 4 side dish sized servings

1 bunch beets with tops (1 pound)

1/3 cup cider vinegar

¼ cup sugar

1 T. cornstarch

½ tsp. salt

1 T. butter or margarine, cut into pieces

Trim all but 1 inch of stems from beets. In a 4-quart saucepan, combine beets and enough water to cover; heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat; cover and simmer until tender, 20-30 minutes. Drain, reserving 1/3 cup beet liquid. When cool enough to handle, peel beets and cut into ¼ inch-thick slices.

In a nonreactive 2-quart saucepan, blend reserved beet liquid, vinegar, sugar, cornstarch, and salt until smooth. Add butter; heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring until sauch has thickened and boils. Reduce heat and simmer 1 minute. Add beets; cook until heated through.

Nutrition Information: 104 calories; 3g fat; 2g sat. fat; 8mg chol.; 352mg sod.; 1g protein