Vegetables Archives – Page 9 of 10

How To Lighten Up Your Chicken Dinner with Lemon Mushroom Sauce

Roasted chicken with mushroom sauce and lemon is light and satisfying.

I roast a chicken pretty frequently. Especially these days, it seems like the best deal as far as chicken goes. My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets the other day when I saw how much they were asking for a couple of boneless, skinless breasts. A whole chicken gives me so much versatility.

That doesn’t mean I want to eat it the same way all the time, though. Michael could eat roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy with peas and stuffing 3 times a week, but that’s a little heavy for me to eat so often. So, what’s a girl to do? One easy idea is to cook the whole thing and slice down just the leanest part you want to eat that day. Skip the gravy and mashed potatoes in favor of something lighter like a lemon mushroom sauce.

chicken breast with — Chicken breast with lemon mushroom sauce, roasted baby potatoes and sauteed spinach

If you’ve got a chicken in the oven, it’s a no brainer to toss potatoes or another vegetable into the roasting pan during the last half hour of cooking.

I put the raw giblets in the freezer for another time as I didn’t feel like making and eating gravy. Instead, I opted to make a quick and light sauce once it was time to serve dinner. Into the skillet went some olive oil and sliced mushrooms. Cooked on high heat until brown and then added minced garlic and about a minute later some lemon juice. So easy and delicious.

If it’s too hot to turn on the oven, do it in a skillet instead. You can cut up the raw chicken however you like. You can cut it into pieces at the joints or just slice thin pieces that you would like to cook for one meal. Why not? You can cook the remainder later in any number of ways and create a variety of dishes.

Does this sound crazy to you? Why should you do it?

Roasting a chicken is easy
Leftovers are fuel for the imagination
Boiling the carcass yields the best stock

I’m talking about simplifying as much as possible! Cooking without a recipe is liberating.

For another dish based on slicing out the raw breast of a whole chicken and serving with delicious sauce, please read Jump For Joy next.

Easy Protein Salads With Healthy Homemade Salad Dressing

Cook eggs perfectly and make a satisfying spinach salad with healthy homemade salad dressing.

Here’s a quick spinach salad with healthy homemade salad dressing for a nourishing lunch. Eggs are a natural with spinach. First I hard cooked them by putting them into a pot full of water and letting it come to a boil. Then took the pot off the heat and covered for 15 minutes. That’s why they’re called hard cooked, not hard boiled. I dislike an overcooked boiled egg.

Once the eggs are done, put them into cold water to stop the cooking process. If you’re not going to eat them immediately, change the water once it’s no longer cold and then refrigerate them once cool enough. You could do an ice bath instead if you have some ice.

spinach salad with hard cooked eggs on a china plate with black border — Spinach salad with eggs and salami

About Eggs

I had picked up these eggs on clearance because they were near their sell by date, which really doesn’t mean that much. Eggs are good in the fridge for some time and it’s actually preferable to use an older egg for hard cooked. They’re easier to peel because there is more air space between the white and the shell. I wasn’t paying strict attention to the timing, so it looks like I could have cooked them a tiny bit less for a creamier yolk. But as long as there is no gray sulfur ring around the yolk, which happens when they’re overcooked, I’m happy.

If I was cooking a larger batch of eggs, I would put them into a steamer basket instead of a pot full of water. They are easiest to peel after steaming. Again, plunge them into cold water or ice bath to stop the cooking process once finished.

Dressing

Dressing here was made using:

part of a shallot,
dijon mustard,
apple cider vinegar
honey
plain yogurt
olive oil
salt
thyme
fennel

I was thinking tarragon might be good, but I was out of it, so I used the herbs on hand. A mayonnaise based dressing would have also worked well. Use what you have to create something delicious. Taste as you go (using a clean spoon) and learn to develop your intuition in the kitchen and start cooking without a recipe.

I realized I had a little salami that needed to be consumed, so I chopped that up and threw it in along with some tomatoes. This salami is called finocchiona, being made with fennel (finocchio in Italian). So it was a good match with the fennel flavored dressing.

One word about dressing, in case you are used to just pouring it on top of the salad: Try tossing your salad with the dressing before serving. You use less and it tastes so much better having your vegetables evenly coated with flavor.

Here’s another way to get some protein in your salad: smoked herring from a can. It’s wonderful with sauerkraut, which is probiotic. A basic lemon vinaigrette is all that’s needed for this healthy homemade salad dressing.

salad with herring and sauerkraut on a white plate — Salad with smoked herring and sauerkraut

For more on making your own healthy homemade salad dressing, please read Undressing the Dressing next.

How Many Ways Can You Do Butakim?

This sauce for stir fry will give your taste buds a thrill.

I don’t really like to name a dish because I think it sets up an expectation for what it should be exactly. So, I quickly regretted it when Michael asked what was for dinner and I replied, “Butakim”. He saw me slicing a red cabbage and was very concerned about the outcome of this dish. Ingredients for butakim usually include baby bok choy as pictured below. But if I don’t have that, I will use another cabbage; even a red one. Get inspired by this spicy sauce for stir fry and cook a fantastic meal with ingredients you have on hand.

baby bok choy with mushrooms, onions, ground turkey, kimchee and yellow rice on a white plate with a fork on it. a head of garlic and a beige napkin also appear.

What Is Butakim?

Butakim is a dish we discovered at a local izakaya (Japanese pub). Buta means pork and kim is a shortened form of kimchee (spicy, fermented cabbage). That izakaya no longer exists and we always had trouble getting them to bring the rice at the right time anyway. We didn’t want the rice for dessert. We wanted to eat it with the butakim. So I started making it at home.

The first thing to do is to take the kimchee out of the refrigerator. I like it to come to room temperature if possible because I want to stir it in at the end of preparing the dish. Why? I don’t want to lose the probiotic benefits by cooking the kimchee.

I began with browning some ground turkey. Then I removed it from the skillet because it was very lean and I didn’t want to overcook it. Next, I sauteed the mushrooms and then added some sliced onions. Some minced garlic goes in there too. Finally add the bok choy.

If you’re using red cabbage, be sure to splash a little vinegar into the skillet because the acid helps preserve the pretty purple color of the cabbage. It doesn’t look very appetizing if it and everything else in the skillet turns blue.

Sauce For Stir Fry

Once the ingredients appear to be nearly finished cooking, start adding your saucy stuff: soy sauce, mirin (sweet cooking sake) and Go-chu-jang (Korean hot and sweet sauce). If you don’t have some of these ingredients, you can improvise with whatever you have. Got some Sriracha (spicy Thai chili pepper sauce)? Some other kind of hot sauce? No mirin? Try a little sugar or honey with a little water. Taste and see what you think it needs in order to find an appealing balance of sweet, salty and spicy. You will have fun expanding your palate and cooking without a recipe.

Of course, it’s the kimchee that ultimately makes the dish. So stir that in at the end along with your cooked meat. Be sure to put a little liquid into the jar once you have poured all the kimchee out. That way you can shake it up and get the last bits of spicy goodness out. A little soy sauce or chicken broth would do the trick.

Butakim on a white plate with a jar of kimchee and garlic in the background with beige napkins. A blue and white ceramic soy sauce bottle is in the foreground.

Basic Ingredients:

ground or sliced meat of your choice
cabbage such as baby bok choy
sliced onion
mushrooms (such as shitake or button)
garlic
soy sauce
mirin (or something sweet)
Go-chu-jang (or other hot sauce)
vinegar (perhaps)
Kimchee
cooked rice

Want to learn about other probiotic foods? Please read Miso Adaptable next.

Cook Moist and Flavorful Meatballs in the Oven

Make moist and flavorful meatballs and learn how to cook them in the oven for a simple meal that will bring your family together.

I enjoy a good meatloaf. So easy and versatile, besides making great leftovers for sandwiches. If meatloaf is a little too pedestrian for you, try forming them into balls or patties. Anything in the shape of a ball suddenly screams party…at least that’s how Michael feels…and they’re so easy to cook in the oven.

You can choose from any array of herbs and spices to change up the personality of ground meat.

3 meatballs with kale and carrots on a white plate — Meatballs with carrots and Tuscan kale

For the meatballs pictured above, I used some leftover rice instead of bread crumbs. (Neither of those are absolutely necessary, by the way. I make all kinds of meatballs without either.) This is one reason I often make my rice a little bit plain to start. It gives me more options for using the leftovers later.

I decided to season the meat with:

cumin
cinnamon
garlic powder
nutmeg

Some diced onion adds flavor and moisture. An egg helps bind the ingredients together. Again, it’s not absolutely necessary. I have often made meatballs without eggs.

How to Cook Meatballs in the Oven

I baked these on a cookie sheet in the oven for about 20 minutes. Turn them over at around 12 minutes or so to cook evenly. That’s the easiest for me, but you could certainly do them in a skillet if you preferred or simmer them in a soup.

3 meatballs with tahini sauce, rice and swiss chard on a white plate — Leftover meatballs with tahini sauce, rice with zucchini and swiss chard

Leftovers freeze well, but we ate these a couple days later with some yogurt/tahini (sesame seed paste) sauce . Lots of ways to make that. I put into my food processor:

a clove of garlic
plain yogurt
tahini
lemon juice
salt

The ratio of yogurt to tahini was nearly equal, but a little heavier on the yogurt. That’s what I decided tasted good. You decide what works for you. Cooking without a recipe is liberating.

For more on working smarter, not harder, please read Use Your Head, Plan Ahead next.

3 Ways to Become Miso Adaptable

Learn about cooking with miso paste and other probiotic foods.

You like probiotic foods? I do. If you want to eat them without taking a supplement, have you tried kimchi, miso or natto? You can find them all in an Asian market.

In case these are unfamiliar items to you: Kimchi is often made with cabbage, but it could be any myriad of vegetables. It’s fermented with garlic and chile peppers. Miso is a savory paste made of fermented soybeans often used for soup. Natto are fermented soybeans.

kimchi and green cauliflower on top of miso soup in a black bowl

Natto

I haven’t had natto for 25 years since Ojiichan, my Japanese grandfather, persuaded me to taste it for the first time. We didn’t speak the same language, but we made our best effort at sign language. If he wanted me to learn good manners by slurping my noodles or tasting something he enjoyed that was foreign to me, it was hard to say no.

So, in honor of Ojiichan, I decided to give natto another try. Maybe my palate had changed…Well, let’s just say I could wait another 25 years until next time…but I didn’t want to discard what I had purchased, so I put the remainder into our morning fruit and vegetable smoothies. Blended with the addition of a little cocoa powder, it was great! No waste!

Try it if you’re feeling adventurous. Let me know what you decide to mix it with if it requires some embellishment for your taste. There are many natto fans out there. Please tell me who you are and how you personally enjoy it.

Miso

Miso is one of these umami type ingredients that you hear so much about. It comes in different varieties: red, white, yellow. If it’s new to you, I might suggest first trying the white one called Shiro Miso because it has the mildest flavor. You can use it to make soup or as a glaze for fish.

soba wakame soup with yams and chicken in a black bowl. wooden chopsticks resting on top with blue and white ceramic cup in the background

I never claimed to be a traditionalist, so if you are one, feel free to laugh if I do things differently than what you’re used to. First boil water to hydrate the wakame (sea vegetable) and noodles you might want to cook. I love soba (buckwheat noodles). What else might you add to the soup? I had some roasted yams that I could use along with some precooked chicken.

I ladled some of the liquid from the pot into a small bowl and whisked in some red miso paste. Simply make sure there aren’t any lumps without overheating the miso, thereby preserving its probiotic attributes. The miso container should give you general directions regarding proportions, so use that as a guide and adjust according to your taste.

Miso Dressing

Who says salad has to contain lettuce? By the time I have finished my more tender greens, cabbage is still going strong in my refrigerator. Combine colors for some variety. Add celery or carrots. Make an interesting salad dressing. Toss in some beans or chicken for protein and enjoy a quick, healthy lunch. Into the mortar/pestle goes:

garlic
ginger
miso paste
rice vinegar
olive oil

And what else? Something spicy or more umami? Let me know what works for you!

Find out why you will always find cabbage and some variety of squash in my refrigerator by reading Keep It Fresh next.

How to Make Legendary Caesar Salad

This Caesar salad dressing recipe makes a great first course or entrée.

Everyone loves Caesar salad. The dressing is one of the first things my mother-in-law, Dottie, taught me to make because hers is legendary. She remembers fondly her travels to Mexico in the 1950’s to attend the bull fights, “We never went to Tijuana without going to the Caesar Hotel, famous for the Caesar salad. The recipe was given to me by the maitre d’ after many, many visits.”

A vintage black and white photo of Dottie, Luis Procuna and another woman — Dottie is the cute one on the left sitting next to Luis Procuna, the famous matador, after a Sunday bullfight

Caesar Salad Dressing Recipe

There are different methods for combining the ingredients, of course. You’ve seen tableside service with the big wooden bowl? I learned to make it using a food processor with these ingredients:

one clove of garlic
1 can of drained anchovies
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
the juice of one lemon
one coddled egg
parmesan cheese
olive oil
romaine lettuce

Dottie puts a few capers in there too. There should be ground pepper in here, but I prefer grains of paradise instead.

The Egg

To coddle the egg, (only the very freshest egg), bring a saucepan full of water to a boil. Take it off the heat and gently lower the egg into the hot water with a slotted spoon. Let it hang out in there for about a minute, just until all the air bubbles have come out. Then take out the egg and put it in cold water.

If you’re nervous about using a nearly raw egg, I understand. Make sure that the egg is fresh. If you’re under 8 or over 80, as they say, perhaps it’s not advisable for you. Use additional olive oil instead or add a little mayonnaise. I have sometimes left out certain ingredients for people with dietary restrictions, so feel free to experiment on your own. One thing is for sure, though. If you leave out the anchovies, just don’t call it a Caesar. A Caesar isn’t a Caesar without them, as far as I’m concerned.

Toppings for Caesar Salad

Years ago, I used to order a fabulous Caesar salad at Vigilucci’s in San Diego. They topped it with breaded, fried calamari. Who needs croutons with those tasty, crunchy morsels?

I started making it that way at home for something extra special, but for such a small amount that I was making here, I didn’t feel like using up another egg to make the breadcrumbs stick, so I just threw some mixed seafood into a skillet for a couple minutes. You will know they’re done when the shrimp turn pink and the calamari and scallops change texture slightly.

Caesar salad topped with shrimp and calamari on a white plate — Make it an entree with the addition of some protein. How do you like to top your Caesar?

Something Crunchy

Dottie makes a genius side for her Caesar: single layered wedges of pita bread, topped with butter and parmesan. She bakes them in the oven until crunchy. They’re fantastic and they go fast! Trust me, you can’t eat just one…which is why I don’t make them for parties anymore. They are so popular that I ended up spending all night in the kitchen preparing batch after batch upon request. Maybe I just need to post a sign that reads, “Limit: 3 per customer.”

For more on making your own salad dressings, please read Undressing the Dressing next.

How to Cook Black-Eyed Peas and Turnips Au Gratin

Try out a new bean like black-eyed peas and make your root vegetables shine.

The last time I went shopping and looked for some dried beans, the only ones left on the shelf were black-eyed peas. I think I have only eaten them once or twice in my life, so I didn’t have a vivid recollection of what they tasted like. I imagined others at the market wondered the same thing, which is why they sat there all by their lonesome selves. But I figured a bean is a bean is a bean. So why not experiment and learn how to cook black-eyed peas?

The first thing I must say about just about any kind of bean: a little pork of some kind usually improves the taste immensely. I always keep bacon in my freezer because then I can cut off an inch or two for a dish like this whenever I need it. If you don’t eat pork, use whatever leftover meat bones you have or at least some vegetable stock to boost the flavor.

Cooking the Black-Eyed Peas

After letting the black-eyed peas soak overnight, I drained them. Then I chopped up the bacon and browned it in a skillet. I added some chopped onion, celery, bell pepper, carrot and garlic. Then I dumped that into a slow cooker along with the beans and enough water to cover them. I had a can of chipotle (smoked dried jalapenos in a sauce). So I put that into a food processor combining the peppers and the sauce from the can. Then I added about a couple tablespoons of the chipotle to the pot and put the rest of the chipotle into an ice cube tray in the freezer so that I can pop the cubes into something else later. A little goes a long way with chipotle, so start small if you’re unsure about the heat.

I started this before noon so that it was ready by dinner. The slow cooker is a natural for beans because you don’t have to babysit a pot on the stove for a couple hours. But either way works just fine. Once the beans were tender, I took the lid off the slow cooker to reduce the liquid a bit. (The leftovers could be served as soup as there was more than enough liquid in there.) Seasoned with salt and called it a day. I have been told that sugar might be desirable with black-eyed peas as they have an earthy flavor that you might find more palatable if sweetened. To each his own.

Turnips Au Gratin

Meanwhile I had some turnips that had been sitting in the bottom of the fridge for a couple months, so I decided to turn them into an au gratin. You could slice them thinly by hand, but I used the slicing disk on my food processor. Used a mandoline twice in my life and decided I am way too clumsy to be trusted without adult supervision, so I gave mine away to a friend who is more graceful.

Greased the bottom of a casserole dish using some of the paper from my package of butter. Put a layer of turnips in there and sprinkled with some shredded mozzarella cheese that I had opened and needed to use. Any cheese you have available would be fine. A smoked gouda would have been divine.

You could season this up any number of ways. I decided to give it a little color with some paprika and sprinkle a little garlic powder and dried basil in there. (I don’t need to say salt, right? ) Repeated the process with another layer of sliced turnips, seasoning and cheese. Covered and put into the oven for about 20 minutes and then let it cook uncovered for another 15 minutes.

Pretty tasty and healthy for using almost exclusively pantry items. What do you think? Ready to try an unpopular bean? Let us know about your experience!

If you’re following my blog, you understand by now that I’m not doing recipes, right? I simply share my experience about cooking with the ingredients I have on hand so that you can liberate yourself and start cooking without recipes. However, I have been asked to start providing an ingredients list in case someone wants to use the same. So here goes:

Ingredients for Black-Eyed Peas:

bacon
onion
celery
bell pepper
garlic
carrot
black-eyed peas
canned chipotle

Ingredients for Turnips Au Gratin:

turnips
cheese (such as smoked gouda)
seasonings (such as garlic powder, paprika, basil)

What else might you do with turnips? Please see Be a Lamb and Try for one suggestion.

Make Steak and Glam Up Your Veggies

Make a great steak and vegetables everyone will love.

If you have a grill, use it. At the moment, we don’t, so I put our steaks under the broiler. It seems to yield the most consistent results. A very simple approach that allows me the opportunity to think more about the sides. Are you a meat eater that resists veggies? I can help you learn how to eat more vegetables when you don’t like them.

top sirloin steak, roasted broccolini, sweet potatoes and truffle aioli on a white plate

Filet mignon used to be our steak of choice until we discovered ribeye. It’s a question of tenderness versus flavor. Ribeye wins hands down, in our opinion. But sometimes the ribeye available lacks enough marble and we’ll get a New York strip instead. On this occasion, the top sirloin looked the best, so that’s what I picked up.

I often season a steak with herbs or top with a sauce of some kind. In this case, I decided to simply sprinkle with a little garlic powder and salt before putting under the broiler. If it’s a great steak, that’s quite enough, as far as I am concerned. A simple, celebratory meal.

Make Veggies the Star

Once I roasted the vegetables, I decided to give them a little love and make them the star of this meal by offering a truffle aioli for dipping. (Crushed a clove of garlic with a little salt using my mortar and pestle and simply mixed it with some mayonnaise and a touch of truffle oil.) It’s hard to restrain oneself with the truffle oil, but do try as a little goes a long way. You want a hint of flavor, not that it should knock you over.

white truffle oil in front of painted Italian platter

I leave my skillet in the oven while roasting the broccolini and sweet potatoes at 400 on a cookie sheet so that the skillet can preheat. Cover and remove the vegetables once they’re tender and jam up the heat to 500. Then preheat the broiler. Carefully put the steaks into the preheated skillet and under the broiler until done to your liking. 4 1/2 minutes is usually about right for us to reach medium rare/medium for the steaks pictured above. (Figure about 5 minutes per inch.) Remove from the skillet and let steaks rest before serving.

All my friends return from their trips abroad with clothing and jewelry as souvenirs. I am a strange bird…What did I bring home from Italy? Truffle oil. If you can’t hop on a plane right now, you can purchase it online or at a local specialty market.

For another idea on using truffle oil, please read No Small Potatoes next.

Seared Tuna or Ahi Tataki is Easy and Delicious

Seared tuna is delicious with quick pickles and rice.

I remember tasting tuna sashimi for the first time when I was a little girl. I was expecting it to taste like what I had been used to eating out of a can. There was absolutely no comparison and I was so pleased. So, if you’re new to eating raw or seared tuna, please keep an open mind. In the preparation below, it has a decidedly Asian flair, but don’t limit yourself to that. Try it paired with potatoes and green beans in a salad Nicoise instead. It’s divine.

Seared ahi with rice, quick pickles and roasted broccolini

I always keep some fish in the freezer. Especially if you want to eat it rare, it’s better to purchase it that way because they say freezing kills parasites. After defrosting, ahi tuna is often seared and served rare because it’s so tender and juicy. In Japanese, it’s called tataki. That’s the way we usually eat it, but if you like it more well done, feel free to prepare it in the way that suits you.

Cooking Ahi

I used to marinate the ahi and then coat it in sesame seeds before searing it on a hot grill. That was always good. Lately I find myself merely salting it before searing it quickly in a screaming hot skillet and then dressing it with some kind of sauce or dip. This time I made a quick sauce with garlic, ginger from the freezer and soy sauce with a touch of wasabi (Japanese horseradish). You could add all kinds of additional ingredients or change it up completely depending on your mood and what you have around the house.

What to Serve It With

Pairing fish with rice and veggies, you have a complete meal that is quick and easy to make. In this case I added some cucumbers that I had pickled earlier in the day.

I love cucumbers, but I usually only buy 2 or 3 at a time because they somehow get overlooked in my refrigerator and if I have more than that, we don’t finish eating them in a timely fashion. The last time I went shopping, though, these Persian cucumbers that I like were only available in a package of 8 or 10. So, once I realized we weren’t going to finish all of them, I decided to preserve them a little longer by slicing them thinly and putting them into a simple brine. You could use any kind of vinegar that you like, plus about the same amount of water. Put some salt and sugar in there and any spices you like. Taste and see what it needs. I decided on using rice vinegar and garlic, along with some wakame (a dried sea vegetable with a long shelf life).

Guess what! Once your cucumbers have been prepared this way, they won’t waste much more time in your refrigerator because they’re so easy to snack on. Like potato chips, except much healthier, you will find you can’t eat just one!

Salad with chicken and pickled cucumbers, dressed with ginger soy sauce

If you happen to have leftover garlic/ginger soy sauce, add some lime juice and olive oil to it the next day and use it for salad dressing. Throw some quick pickles in there too.

Where did I get the chicken? That was left over too. Want to know how to roast one? Please read Don’t Be Chicken next.

Meet the Beets and Make Them Sweet

Even you can learn to like beets.

Wondering how to eat more vegetables when you don’t like them? Some of you have asked about tips for using beets and offered some wonderfully creative suggestions. I have been taking my time on responding because I know that others among you really dislike beets. Beets seem to be one of the more divisive vegetables: either you love them or you hate them.

While it’s fine to have personal preferences, I continue to encourage you to try things in different ways because we have more options and flexibility if we have a broad palate.

So the first thing I always ask someone when they claim they don’t like to eat a certain vegetable is, why? What is it that you don’t like? Is it the color? The texture? If it’s the flavor itself, what is it about the flavor that turns you off? It seems like everyone has an inclination toward a particular taste. Michael tends to like things sweeter than I do. I like sour and even a little bitter. What about salty? Let’s not forget umami. (Have you grown tired of hearing about that one yet?)

The most common complaint I hear about beets is that they taste like “dirt”. Okay, let’s reframe that as “earthy”. In wine terms, we would call it “terroir” and that’s actually desirable…

So what do we need to do with this earthy vegetable to make it more palatable for you? Does it need some fat or salt or sweetness for balance? There is a reason why so many salads with beets contain nuts, goat cheese or fruit in them. What about an herbal component? Remember our friend, pesto?

I like beets roasted, but you may prefer them simply boiled and matched with the appropriate counterpart.

Beets roasted with Herbs de Provence, raw fennel dressed with orange juice vinaigrette and feta cheese

When I was a child, I disliked the way beets turned everything on my plate red. Here’s an easy solution: Put them on a separate plate! Or if you put them into a salad, make sure your dressing is of the same hue. It works great. Pictured above, I put them on top of the fennel after dressing it. Then drizzled a little more dressing on top.

You can also try the golden variety if you want to introduce yourself to them gradually. The flavor is milder and they don’t stain everything.

What about the texture? You can peel them if they’re too fibrous for you. I prefer to simply scrub them, but I do cut just a little bit around the the top where the stem meets the root to smooth out the parts that are too rough. If there are any hair-like roots still attached or rough spots, I scrape those off with a paring knife too.

For a more subtle way to incorporate beets in a meal, read Take Your Burger Further With This Surprise Ingredient.