Beets are not a winter vegetable. They are available year round and are best from June through October.
That, however, didn’t stop me from serving this Marinated Beet Salad as an appetizer at our traditional Polish paleo Christmas dinner.
It’s great to eat seasonal and it can often decrease your grocery bill since foods in season are typically reduced because of their availability however sometimes, at least for me, I want to experiment and play with food that is not grown in the season we’re currently in.
For example, avocados are one of my favorite foods. They are definitely not grown in the Chicagoland area, let alone during the winter, unless they’re coming from Mexico or Florida. Regardless, you will always find them stocked in my fridge or on my plate.
The same goes for beets and blueberries. They may not be in season but when I have a taste for them, and then see them at the grocery store, you can bet I’m gonna pick them up.
Preparing Beets
If you’ve ever made anything with beets you know they can be a messy little vegetable.
If you’re looking to dye a white shirt red or maybe you want to stain a wooden cutting board, beets can naturally help with that.
If you worry about things like your hands turning a shade of pink while working with them, you can always wear gloves but I’ve never found the red stain will easily wash off my hands with soap and a good scrubbing.
Alternate Cooking Method
If you don’t want to peel and cut the beets before cooking, you can always trim the ends, wrap them in foil and bake them until soft to the touch. Once you remove them from the oven, the skins will easily peel off. Just don’t burn your fingers removing those skins while they’re piping hot! :)
Varieties of Beets
I’m sure you’re familiar with the deep red beet but can you tell from the photos that I also used yellow and Chioggia (pin striped) beets in this dish? If you can’t see the candy cane esque stripes that’s pretty typical. The stripes tend to become subdued when you cook them but in this case, since I paired them with red beets, the red tint took over.
When the farmer’s markets roll back around in your area, be sure to seek out all the different varieties of beets. You’ll typically find varieties available there that grocery stores just don’t carry.
