This year I'm growing both red and golden beets, but at harvest time, it's easy to tell them apart. The golden beets are bright yellow all the way through to their leaf veins, and the red beets have these beautiful red, striped stems.
If you've ever prepared and cooked red beets, you know that the red juice can be quite messy, but not so with golden beets. Red juice aside, I just prefer the taste of the golden beet. They are wonderfully sweet without that earthy taste that sometimes accompanies red beets.
Roasting really brings out the flavor of root vegetables. Tonight I'm roasting golden beets and carrots tossed with olive oil, a bit of thyme, salt and ground pepper in a 400 degree oven. After 30 minutes, the vegetables are fork tender and oh, so good.
Nutritious and low in calories. You can't beat beets.
Those are some beautiful beets! Golden beets are one of my favorite root vegetable. I agree, they are sweeter than red beets. I like them roasted and served on top of a salad. Yum! Are they difficult to grow?
ReplyDeleteI usually have a hard time getting getting my beets started because the little seedlings are so appealing to a variety of caterpillars and cutworms. This year I re-seeded twice and finally got a late stand of seedlings. They grew all winter and I'm harvesting them now. The early days seem a little difficult, but once the plants get going and the cold temps set in, I think they're very easy.
DeleteMaybe I should try growing golden beets. I've grown red beets, and they have a very strong earthy taste that I don't like.
ReplyDeleteThe golden beet has a much cleaner taste. The first time I grew them I was very pleasantly surprised. Now I grow them every year.
DeleteMaybe I should try the golden beets. I never have luck with the red ones. Lots of good greens, but the roots never fill out.
ReplyDeleteI keep trying, though.
We roast a lot of different veggies. Great taste!
Mmmm, me too. I've been roasting broccoli, cauliflower and all the root veggies. They're so good and I want to enjoy them while it's still cool enough to run the oven :)
DeleteThey look very nice. I should try them. I usually grow a cylindrical variety which has the shape of a large short carrot. Last year I tried Chioggia but they did not do all that well.
ReplyDeleteIt's great to try new things. You never know when you'll find your next favorite.
DeleteI managed to grow one big golden beet from a beet seed mix. I should probably go harvest it! I'll try your roasting method.
ReplyDeleteYum! I'm roasting golden beets, carrots, and celeriac root tonight! Had my first attempt at beets turn out successfully this year.
ReplyDelete