By MARY ANN LIENHART CROSS
County Extension Director, Purdue Extension Elkhart County

When I teach nutrition I often encourage people to eat a rainbow of colors and to eat more foods of color. You know that vegetables and fruits are where you are going to find the colors. The colors make for flavor, texture, and foods that are nutrient-dense. I guarantee that when you eat more vegetables and fruits you are going to feel better.

The beet is a root vegetable that thrives in cool climates. The common table beet is bulb shaped with paper-thin, dark skin with red veins and stems. Other, less common table varieties have golden or white flesh. There is a special horticultural variety that is grown for its leafy tops rather than the root. Yet another variety, the sugar beet, is rarely eaten, but is processed for sugar and the remaining fiber is often used for bulk in animal feed.

Beet greens, when young and tender, may be added raw to a salad. Older greens must be cooked and may then be eaten cold with lemon and oil, or hot with butter. Besides being delicious, the greens are an excellent source of vitamin A, calcium, and iron. Cooked, peeled beets are eaten hot or cold, whole, or cut in pieces. They are served cold as salad or salad garnish, or hot as a side dish with butter or a sweet-and-sour sauce as Harvard beets, one of my favorite ways to enjoy beets.

Beets may be pickled or made into relish. There are many pickled beet recipes, but the following is one I am currently using. I purchase two cans of small whole or sliced beets and hard cook a dozen eggs. I peel the eggs and gather a couple of wide mouth jars. In a large sauce pan, place two cups of white vinegar, two cups sugar, two cups of beet juice, and two teaspoons of pickling spice.

If your beet juice doesn’t quite measure two cups, add enough water to equal two cups. If you don’t have pickling spice on hand, you can substitute with one teaspoon each of cinnamon, allspice and cloves. Bring all of these ingredients to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Stir the mixture until all the sugar is dissolved then add the beets and eggs.

Rinse the jars with hot water. Then place a layer of beets in the bottom, then some eggs and add some of the pickled red beet brine that you just made. Continue to add the beets and eggs in layers adding more of the brine. You can also make a jar of only beets and a jar of only eggs. You can pickle eggs without beets but for those of us who like red beet pickled eggs there is a difference.

If you make these now they will be great for Easter. Pickled eggs are also extra tasty turned into deviled eggs. Enjoy.