Canned Beets -- Talk to Me!

[alkapal]

I had a craving for beets, and so made this salad with a can of sliced beets: Trader Joe's 21 Spice Salute herb mix, plus juice of one lime, plus a heck of a lot of fresh chopped cilantro. We're having it with yellow rice and tandoori chicken leftovers.

Had I been more diligent, I would have found and added that bit of sliced red onion that's being harbored as a fugitive in the fridge. I also contemplated balsamic, but figured that the lime was enough.

How do you dress up or otherwise enjoy canned beets?

[Wawsanham]

First of all, I'd say get fresh ones and boil them or roast them--instead of canned. But, as you have canned beets... try mashing them with a bit of butter and salt, heating them up of course. Really good.

[jmcarthur8]

Fresh or canned beets, cubed, over arugula with good blue cheese chunks, some dried cranberries, toasted walnuts, sweet vinaigrette, a little Vidalia onion.
That's all I need for dinner. Yum.

[lobsterchurch]

I have a friend from Pennsylvania and she said the Amish pickle beets with eggs. I've seen recipes on line for it using canned beets. Sounds like an interesting combo.

[Passadumkeg]

Pickled beets w/ pickle egg. Great Pennsy bar food.
I grew up nursed on fresh beets. My MIL left us w/ a case of canned beets when she died. I used them a lot in red flannel hash, threw them in schi, a cabbage soup, and made a herring, whipped cream and beet salad.
When I was in college, at one point I was soooo broke, I was down to only a can of beets in the cupboard. Really! Nothing in the fridge. I planned a midnight raid on the Allentown trout hatchery, netted a big one, filleted him; it was one of the best meals of my life; fried trout and the damn can of beets. The next day I did what any sane Vietnam vet would do. I got out on I-78 and hitch hiked to New Mexico to mooch off my bro. There began a life long love affair w/ the Hatch chile. We fly back to NM tomorrow.

[lobsterchurch]

I like the sound of the herring, whipped cream, beet salad. Is that Dutch or Scandinavian, German? Reminds me of the Scandinavian, Herring sour cream dish they have around Christmas.

[Passadumkeg]

Scandinavian X-mas treat.

[Wawsanham]

It's also German (and Polish)--for X-mas.

[alkapal]

right from my favorite cookin' man, jacques, on his website:

http://www.kqed.org/w/morefastfoodmyw...

Beet, Stilton, Apple, and Nut Salad

Watch Episode 204 .....

"""This classic salad makes an elegant and tasty first course for a dinner or a great lunch main dish. I simplify the preparation by using sliced canned beets.

Drain the juice from a 1-pound can of sliced beets. Divide the slices among four plates, allotting 4 or 5 slices per plate. Mix together in a bowl 3/4 cup coarsely chopped white mushrooms, about 1 cup peeled and coarsely chopped apple, 1/2 cup broken walnut pieces, and 1/2 cup crumbled Stilton cheese. Add 3 tablespoons mayonnaise and salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste and mix well. Spoon a good dollop of the mixture into the middle of the sliced beets on the plates and sprinkle on 1 teaspoon of chopped fresh chives. Serve."""""

[bushwickgirl]

Yessss...

[mamachef]

I was thinking so hard about shredded beets that I forgot about one of the BEST applications I've ever had concerning the sliced ones:
On a burger (meat mixed with finely-chopped pineapple)
Top with sliced canned beets and a fried egg
Serve on bun with sriracha mayo or thousand island dressing. Bun should be toasted. All other accoutrements are optional but delicious (thin-sliced onion and tomato, shredded lettuce...)
An Aussie friend of mine made her burgers this way and they were just outstanding: juicy, slightly sweet, earthy, spicy, beefy........

[LJS]

I adore canned beets, plain, not pickled. As a riff on the first post here, alkapals salad, I would add my favourite 'salsa'.

1 can beets, drained and chopped
1/4 fresh pineapple chopped (or 1/2 large can of crushed pineapple if you are in a hurry)
juice of one large lime (or 2 small)
1 generous handful chopped coriander
Few drops tabasco
Salt and pepper
Mix, mellow and enjoy with chicken or fish.

On a different tack entirely, try using cooked beets (or canned) as a substitute for potatoes in your favourite Potato Salad recipe. Looks fabulous, especially as one of a trio of this style of salad at a summer BBQ. One beet, one turnip and one regular potato...spectacular display of colours.

[alkapal]

the pineapple and beet combo is intriguing! i'll bet it is tasty, too.

[chef chicklet]

hmmm. the beets really are a blank canvas, they go great with pungent cheeses, blue cheese, feta, etc, but I hadn't thought of sweet. I love pineapple, I love beets, this salad has promise.

[chef chicklet]

When I was young and living at home and if my mom opened a can of beets she'd reserve some of the juice, and then make a pickling juice of vinegar, cloves, jumiper, pepper corns, and I can't remember all the spices, but then white onion and or cucumbers.
The reserved juice - she gave to my dad, and he made pickled eggs, now that's what we were waiting for! Ready after a few days, and we kids gobbled them down.

[alkapal]

the pink pickled eggs make really neat deviled eggs

http://www.staceysnacksonline.com/200...

[chef chicklet]

That is truly wonderful! I never thought to do this, but they're perfect for this application! Just popping them on a salad they look beautiful, but this.... my. Thanks dear AP!
I wish I were having a party, these are real stunners!

[Conairgrl]

I add 1/4 to 1/3 cup of vinegar and suger (equal amounts) to 1 can of beets then simmer, they taste like home canned beets!

[mariacarmen]

last night i was served sliced, canned beets as part of a relish tray - and except for the texture, which was a bit flabby as others have mentioned, they were really good! it had been literally 40 years or more since I'd had canned beets. I was surprised that they had retained so much of their earthy flavor. i would always prefer roasted over canned, but these were not bad at all. i don't know what the brand was, though i think my friends shop at Whole Foods quite a bit, or at Trader Joe's....

eta - and after reading all these posts i will start to keep a few cans on hand.

[Querencia]

My grandma used to pickle them by pouring off half the liquid, replacing it with vinegar, and adding some sugar (I would think about 1/4-1/3 cup) and mixed pickling spice---bring this liquid to a boil, pour it over the beets, and refrigerate for a few days before using.

[Floridagirl]

I love beets but I hate canned beets. Unfortunately, the fresh beets in the stores around here are hardly fresh and very expensive. There is a booth at the local farmers market called Venus Veggies and he grows the beets and they are the only ones I will eat. You can't fix canned beets except to make pickled beets. I think from your posts you come from Florida, this guy is at the downtown farmers market on Thursdays in Fort Myers.

[jnk]

I too am not a canned beets fan, but I had a wonderful salad from a Russian grocer that's no longer in business that they called "Vinegret", yes, that's how it was spelled. I found the recipe online and will add the link.

http://www.bigoven.com/recipe/17113/V...

[iL Divo]

Love canned beets. Husband does too. Salads, oh what they do to a tossed green salad with carrots tomato scallions and hard boiled eggs with 1000 island dressing and real bacon atop plus salted sunflower seeds, oh my...

[bushwickgirl]

Mmn, maybe it'sjust about my taste buds this evening, but seriously people, see how good canned beets can be, hard boiled eggs, scallions, thousand island dressing, bacon, crunchy seeds, c'mon.

[magiesmom]

doesn't sound too bad.

[alkapal]

i'm a sucker for good thousand island dressing. and i like (love) all the other ingredients, too. i'll try this when i return to chez alka.

[iL Divo]

oh bwg, does that sound really bad to you? maybe our taste buds, hubby's and mine, are misfiring but really we can't eat enough of the salad served at Idle Spurs and that's their common everyday salad...........yuumm

[bushwickgirl]

No, no, I was complementing it, it sounds great.

[mamachef]

I'm totally salivating over this one, bwg.

[cayjohan]

In farmers' market season we eat a lot of fresh beets, but in the winter we keep a stash of canned in the pantry. I generally do a quick pickle on them, as we prefer a more vinegar-y/clove-y pickle than is generally available with a store-bought pickled beet like Aunt Nellie's brand. My favorite use (preferably with the quick pickled, but often with the straight-from-the-can beets) is some variation on Lindström's Steak (http://www.finnguide.fi/finnishrecipe...). The chopped beets add needed moisture to the ground meat (I use ground venison, so I'm always cramming some vegetable or another into the mixture for moisture), and the flavor and color is wonderful. If I haven't had time to pickle the beets, I generally add some chopped gherkins to the Lindström's Steak mixture for that vinegar-y tang. It's a nice cheap dish, and the visual of very burgundy cooked ground meat patties is rather enticing.

Even raw, the patties look pretty enough that I couldn't resist snapping a shot from one of last week's meals. It's been a long winter - we're looking for color everywhere.

[alkapal]

nice to hear from you cayjohan!!! happy new year -- and eat some vension patties for me, alright?

[cayjohan]

Thanks, and Happy New Year right back. Hell, I'd mail you some venison if I could. We have a freezer full and all I crave is spring greens and fruit! Thank the stars for the beets-with-meat. Try the dish if you like ground meat patties - that particular recipe with both a panade and the potato is especially good...I even increase the beet ratio quite a bit and find it delicious.

[meatn3]

Thanks for posting this! I have several cups of cooked, shredded beets (left over from another recipe) that I'm trying to use up. This might do it!

[meatn3]

cayjohan, thanks! I made a rendition of this with cooked, shredded beets and some pickle juice. Made it from memory, which forgot your suggestion of chopped gherkins. It was very tasty!

[cayjohan]

So glad you liked it! Honestly, this dish shows up almost embarrassingly often on our table, as no one ever seems to tire of it. For what it's worth, it's quite easy to push these into fancy-land for a dinner party - just bread them as you would for, say, cutlets Pozharsky. They show up in this guise on our Christmas buffet from time to time and are always a big hit.

[meatn3]

They were a big hit here too! Just finished the last when I arrived home. We just treated them as burgers. How do you serve them? This could make a nice meat loaf too.

I get the best recipes from CH!

[cayjohan]

I usually treat it as a knife-and-fork chopped steak, and serve sides in some sort of Scandinavian/Baltic/Slavic idiom: boiled potatoes with dill, cucumber-onion salad, a mushroom/sour cream sauce or a sorrel sauce, cooked cabbage...you get the idea. I'm seriously considering trying them with a lump of herbed butter inside the patty, as a sort of chicken Kiev riff. A little dill or tarragon, you know...might be worth a short. I mean, how bad could it be? With the beets and the tartness and the butter, it might end up tasting a little like Harvard beets, too.

Dang. Now I have to try it.

[meatn3]

I'd been playing with the idea of a mushroom cream sauce - but the aroma and the crispy bits - we just ended up eating them out of the pan the first night! The problems of cooking late at night...

Keep us posted on the Kiev riff - sounds yummy!

[meatn3]

I made this again ( still working through a ton of beets) and added some Moroccan style preserved lemon. The flavor worked really well - I'll keep this change in the future!

[cayjohan]

You made me make the big wide-opened mouth-of-awe face with how wonderfully inspired (**fleeping brilliant**) that sounds! And, and, and...I have a nicely ripe jar of preserved lemons in the fridge! And some ground venison thawing. I was going to try the Lindström steaks with a core of herbed butter...but now I'm seriously wavering. Gah...I KNOW I'm going to end up making them both. Or merge them. Say now...

I assume the lemon is in lieu of any gherkins/pickle juice?

[meatn3]

Aw, (blush), thanks!

My new batch of lemons just went in the fridge and I noticed there was 1 1/2 left in the old batch, which prompted the idea. I finely minced 3/4 of one (unrinsed, pulp included). This was with 1.3 lb grind. Threw in some kosher dill juice too for good measure. I think I'd use a whole lemon next time.

Actually, merging the two, perhaps as a compound butter might work really well!

I just love preserved lemons and experiment with them a bit. They really add a magical touch!

I froze some of the uncooked mix, we'll see how it fares....

[cayjohan]

Did this tonight - merged the two. The meat+beets+onion+preserved lemon (using your ratio), et.al. Wrapped around a little log of dill butter. Patty went into bread crumbs, and the skillet (olive oil/butter mix). Crossed fingers.

Wow. First go-around was the big nice wow - the herbed butter spurting out on a bed of bulgar with raisins, parsley and lemon, green peas in yogurt and mixed greens on the side. The seconds that were pretty much required were less of a *wow*, as in keeping warm, the patties absorbed the butter - definitely *not* a bad thing, but less of a show.

The preserved lemon is hands-down a star in a meat patty! I'm so glad you thought of this...and jogged my memory, as I need to put up some more lemons! (The ripe-ripe-ripe ones I had were just on the "verge", but utterly delicious in this. The lemon and beet together is simply first rate, and the dill butter over it all was the icing. I know it's February, but I can also see this being a very nice flavor set for a summer dinner party.

Yum. Tell me sometime what else you do with preserved lemon? I'm a bit of an addict with the flavor and would love to play around with it a little more!

[alkapal]

sounds like a delicious winner, cayjohan!

[nomadchowwoman]

I too would be much appreciative of further tips on using preserved lemons--brilliant tip for beets: thanks!

[meatn3]

This froze just fine, although very moist when defrosted. I formed it into a rough loaf and baked. I'm on a serious quest to loose some weight, so baking seemed better than frying.

Turned out very good - we just love this stuff! The lemon flavor was somewhat diminished, perhaps due to the freezing?

As I was eating this served over brown rice I was struck by the thought that this beet/meat mix would be terrific mixed with rice or lentils and used to stuff peppers, mushrooms, etc.

(My SO calls this Cay's beetloaf!)

[cayjohan]

Beetloaf! I love it! My Hub just mangles the Finnish term (Lindströminpihvit) into something unrecognizable and finally blurts "Those meat-and-beet things." I think I'll give him "Beetloaf" and make his life easier!

(And now you have to change your name to beetn3?)

I diligently put up more lemons that are doing their oozy-rotty lemon thing on the counter as I type, just to have some ready to make some more of this magical meat mixture. And now you start talking about stuffing mushrooms with it? Heavens to Mergatroid. I'm sunk. Have you ciphered out a plan? I know I'll be thinking on it.

It's really too good an idea to pass up, isn't it?

Cay

[mamachef]

Pozharsky? Isn't that the cutlet made of minced white chicken meat? I think I saw a recipe once, and I think I better find that recipe.

[cayjohan]

Sorry I'm late - just saw this now. Yes, the cutlets Pozharsky use ground chicken. They're wonderfully good. And some bit of lore about an innkeeper serving Czar Alexander the 1st these cutlets instead of the veal ordered, and having them be a hit with the czar (I love little stories like that; can't help it). There are a ton of recipes out there - look for those that have you separate the eggs and whip the egg whites to fold into the mince mixture. It really makes for a superior result in my opinion. The rest is just frying technique - on the gentle end of it. These want to be a very tender crisp. It's honestly a little tricky to get the perfect crust, but even the misses are good.

I think the basic recipe I use is from Anya von Bremzen's "Please To The Table," but I'd have to check to be sure.

I serve them with a wild mushroom/sherry/cream sauce. It's a nice dish - rather classically fancy, but comfort-foody at the same time.

[mamachef]

I dug around, and the Von Bremzen recipe was the first one I found, from a Saveur magazine. Definitely on next weeks' menu; these sound just wonderful in a designer comfort-food way. And I love food lore and history and trivia myself!

[Pia]

That picture reminds me that canned beets are often used in Indian vegetable "cutlets" (more like a patty/croquette, typically with potato, peas and other veggies). Here's a recipe, not one I've used specifically, but looks right (this uses fresh beets, though):
http://chitra-ammas-kitchen.blogspot....

[cayjohan]

Those cutlets sound wonderful! (I'm a patty/croquette junkie, really.) I love beets, but tend to get mired in using them in Scand./Baltic style recipes, and never even thought of them in Indian food. Great recommendation - gotta try these!

[Feed Me]

I think that the best way to make canned beets taste 'good' is to marinate in red wine vinegar, olive oil, red onion and fresh herbs over night. The beets need time to absorb flavor and ressurect themselves

[magiesmom]

by then you could cook real ones, no?

[alkapal]

sure one can always "cook" something (FIRST assuming that it is in the house), but does one always want to or have the time to do so? typically, one uses canned beets when wants to use a pantry item for a meal.

[magiesmom]

I know. I just don't like 'em. But clearly others do. Actually I saw this beet tzadiki recipe yesterday and thought canned beets would do.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/hea...

[Feed Me]

I quickly through the mixture in tupperware container at night when i have time. It is then ready the next night or whenever - time saver

[schmoopy]

I love canned beets too (plain, never pickled!). I'll buy the canned shoestring beets, drain them, and then add them to my favorite green salad concoction: a mix of greens (butter lettuce, arugula, romaine), garbanzo beans, kidney beans, chopped red onion, sliced green onions, LOTS OF BEETS, and then all topped off with Ina Garten's recipe for her creamy vinaigrette (which is my all time favorite salad dressing). I've been known to throw together beets, garbanzos and kidney beans, mixed with the vinaigrette, and call that lunch. Yum!

[nomadchowwoman]

What makes the vinaigrette creamy? My standard vinaigrette is also an IG recipe, but it's not creamy.

[schmoopy]

I think it's called creamy because it's not a clear vinaigrette. The ratio of olive oil to vinegar is quite large so after you've either whipped all the ingredients together by hand, or in the blender, or with an immersion blender, it ends up looking "creamy" rather than clearish. If you google Ina Garten Creamy Vinaigrette it pops right up. What is your standard recipe?

[nomadchowwoman]

I'm always on the lookout for new vinaigrettes as I tend to get into a rut.
I googled, and they are two different recipes (mine calls for 3 T.champagne or white wine vinegar to 1/2 c. olive oil, no honey, garlic instead of shallots). Yours sounds good too. I can see now where the "creamy" comes from. I make another one sometimes, very similar to yours that uses balsamic, and it too emulsifies into something creamy.

[schmoopy]

Forgot to add that there's no cream or milk or mayo involved in this recipe. It's just the way it emulsifies when blended together.

[HillJ]

Diced and mixed into cream cheese it makes a delicious spread with turkey breast and cheese sandwiches (something Costco sells by the boatload as a rollup)

[greygarious]

Costco's turkey rollers have cream cheese mixed with cranberry sauce, not beets - in New England, anyway. Perhaps different elsewhere.

[HillJ]

Beets is listed on the pkg I bought. Did they change to cranberry sauce...hmmm. Beets tastes delicious.

[sunshine842]

cranberry sauce in Florida, too.

[HillJ]

there's got to be a ingredient list for these roll ups somewhere on the Net. If I'm wrong, I stand corrected. The rollups I make at home def. include beets/cream cheese spread and we love it.

[sunshine842]

I remember it because I brought some for a potluck lunch and work - and people went so nuts for them that we dug the lid out of the trash so everybody could copy down the ingredients.

Cranberry sauce and cream cheese.

[HillJ]

I here ya, thing is in the day back when I bought them (now I make them) my ingredient label said beets (which is why I gave it a try at home). Love the combo. Are the cranberries whole/diced or the jellied type?

[sunshine842]

Not sure - I think it's whipped with the cream cheese, to tell the truth, so whatever it is is pretty much pureed by the time it's spread on the tortillas.

Beet juice is frequently used as a colourant....could that be what you're thinking of?

[HillJ]

No the mixture doesn't turn red. There are bits of diced beet folded into the cream cheese.

[sunshine842]

no, as a colorant IN something else...maybe even in the cranberry sauce...because it was definitely "cranberry sauce" that was on that label, because we talked about it sounding like Thanksgiving.

(because I GUARANTEE that had I seen 'beets' as a significant ingredient it would have meant that I never even thought about eating those rollups again.)

[HillJ]

ah! Now I've not seen beet used as a colorant in cranberry sauce ever but I get what you're saying. I was only focused on the use of beets, in this case diced and added to cream cheese, as a spread on a rollup.

[POAndrea]

I love beets, no matter whether I peel them or open a can. Straight from the can is good, but I also like to dump the beets, about half the juice, a couple slices of onion, a good dollop of sour cream and some pickle juice in the blender and make a cold soup (I usually have to thin it with a little water or broth, if I have any leftover in the fridge). If I have a little cucumber or dill, I throw that in too.

[schmoopy]

I know what you mean! All this talk of beets sent me skedaddling to the farmers market yesterday to pick up fresh beets, cukes, and dill to make a fresh, chilled borscht. In addition to the sour cream I use buttermilk, chopped green onions, chopped parsley, a little lemon juice and a little sugar. I know we're talking about canned beets here and I do love them too, but I just had to respond to your post seeing that you made a quick and easy borscht with the canned ones. My soup turned out excellent but its not a "quick" process. I'm going to try your version next time. And I'll bet those already cooked and peeled, vacuum-packed beets from Trader Joe's would be a good thing too.

[LittleBee]

Ooh, yummy - this is almost exactly what I was going to post. Let me give you my version, as a recipe:
Put all these ingredients cold into a big bowl:
- 1can beets, grated, and all the juice
- a few coarsely chopped green onions (or about half a cup of chopped sweet white onion)
- 1 peeled chopped or grated cucumber
- buttermilk... half a liter to a liter, depending on your taste
- some coarse salt
- as much water as you want to thin it out to your taste
Mix all this up and in each serving bowl, float a half a hard-boiled egg, cut side up, and top with fresh dill. We serve this on hot days, and with a side of cold boiled potatoes.
Thanks for reading! Hope somebody tries it :-)

[michelleats]

Count me in the weirdo minority of people who like canned beets. I like to drain, top with chevre or other goat cheese and broil until the cheese is bubbly.

[dave_c]

I like to dress up canned beets with a vinegar, olive oil and oregano. However, I can eat canned beets straight from the can and be happy.

Fresh beets are good, but taste like dirt to me.

[bushwickgirl]

dave, I like to describe that "taste like dirt" thing as more of an earthy flavor; they are root vegetables, after all.

I love fresh but canned are fine, pickled, like other posters mentioned, sliced in salads, good with strong salty cheeses, mixed with sour cream and fresh herbs, dill, chives or basil, or heated in a orange sauce. The juice does make a good pink pickled egg. I've used them in borscht, although their flavor is less beety than fresh. We always had 'em in the pantry when I was little, before my parents started to garden and grow their own. Harvard or orange beets were frequent dinner fare. Biggest drawback with canned? No greens.

I am not a canned beet hater.

Here's a older thread on the beet subject:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/5900...

[Breezychow]

I like the taste of them creamed or with sour cream, but the color turns me off. They end up looking like they're swimming in Pepto Bismol - lol!!

[greygarious]

Somebody on CH nailed that taste down even MORE accurately, IMO, when s/he wrote that beets "taste like basement".

[VeggieHead]

Now that is funny. For a long time, I didn't realize beets actually came from the ground.

[schmoopy]

Oh, this made me laugh because I agree that they do taste like dirt - but that's what I like about the taste. Not the actual dirt part but more the "earthiness" of them. Thanks for the smile!

[nomadchowwoman]

I love that "earth" smell when they're roasting.

[CSaunders]

Woah I never knew there was such a thing!

[VeggieHead]

While I will resort to canned beets, if necessary, I always go fresh. Over the weekend, just made a spinach/arugula salad with roasted chayoga, champagne, and gold beets, micro fennel, a bit of goat brie, with a touch of orange-vanilla Balsamic and olive oil. Yum!! My love for beets goes waaaay back to my mom making the standard beet, hard-cooked egg, and mayo salad. Man, I still love those purple eggs, swimming around in the jar at some bars. Great breakfast, paired with a Bloody Mary.

[mamachef]

I really, really love canned beets on a green salad with blue cheese dressing. I can't even tell you how much I love them, but I would put a ring around that combo and marry it if I could. : ) Oh, but it has to be REALLY good blue cheese.

[magiesmom]

do you for some reason prefer canned to fresh or is it the "convenience"?

[mamachef]

For some bizzare genetic reason (I guess), I just really like those dirty aluminum-flavored things on a very whitebread salad. But I do prefer to roast beets when I have them; but not for that salad, which also contains canned kidney beans and shredded cheese. I like beets in any form

[magiesmom]

I love beets too. I have some red and some gold roasting in the oven. I love them with wheatberries, walnut oil , lemon juice.

[bayoucook]

For whatever reason they're not frequently available fresh here; when they are, I buy them. We love beats in a salad and as a side dish, so we do use canned several times a year. Also tiny potatoes in a can, because we don't tend to buy large bags of potatoes for the two of us and I never know what I'm going to cook and may not have a potato in the pantry except for canned. Some canned vegetables are worth having around.

[cuccubear]

Canned beets, eh? Get your bacon, onions and garlic going in a pan. Remove the bacon, dump in the drained and sliced canned beets and saute. Chop the bacon, add back to the pan. At the last minute dress with a handful of chopped walnuts. Makes for a nice side dish, esp. for folks who don't like beets.

[onrushpam]

I'm sure I'm weird about this...
I love the little baby round canned beets, chilled to really, really cold, sprinkled with a little sea salt and eaten with my fingers! Not as good as fresh (which I also prefer cold). But, they'll do in a pinch.

One of my earliest food memories is going to the Beaumont Inn in Harrodsburg, KY... all dressed up in a ruffly dress. I begged to have some of the beets from my mother's plate. She told me I wouldn't like them, but I would not relent. So, she let me try them. They were what I think are called Harvard Beets... warm, in some sort of sweet/sour sauce. Blech! Mamma was right. I didn't like them. She knew I loved my beets cold, with salt, even as a toddler!

[nomadchowwoman]

Oh, shudder. I hated "Harvard Beets." I'd forgotten about those.

[Will Owen]

Well, that was how I liked them best, only Mom called them "Dutch style". If she didn't have the time or the inclination she'd just heat them up with butter, salt and pepper. After I got older I came to like them cold in salads, especially with mayonnaise and some chopped egg. I think I must've been all grown up before I had fresh ones; we gardened, and my Grandpa Owen had a huge garden, but the only things we grew underground were potatoes, carrots and radishes.

[nomadchowwoman]

It is strange, Will, the tastes we remember and their associations. I hated almost any beets when I was a kid--they were all canned--but I especially hated any hot preparations. I could tolerate them cold, w/red onion and vinegar, but they weren't my favorite..
Now, I adore fresh beets, but, funny, I still always serve them cold. I think I need to try them hot.

[Will Owen]

They're in season at the SoCal farmer's markets now. We both love them; I like to do a sort of Root Roast with beets, carrots, parsnips and potatoes, and then braise some good greens and fresh handmade sausage from the Sicilian guy around the corner. Too warm to do that this weekend, but the winter's young yet …

[ErnieD]

Ooh, if you don't mind my asking, what do you season your root roast with? I have odds and ends of all four of those veggies leftover and I had actually planned to roast them up together this week as a side dish. I was thinking thyme or rosemary as a seasoning, but if you have something you've had success with I'd love to hear it!

[VeggieHead]

Fresh thyme goes great with a roasted root veg dish, as does sage. While I love rosemary on roasted potatoes, I don't know that I would enjoy it on beets. Perhaps I should give it a try, just to see how it turns out. Personally, I prefer to stay simple... fresh thyme, lemon zest, olive oil, salt and pepper. Depending on which vegetables I use, I've finished them with chopped parsley... sometimes chopped fennel fronds, or cooled them a bit and served them over a bed of baby arugula.

[healthybeet]

I use a combination of thyme, rosemary and parsley. Fresh, if I have it, or dried that's always in the pantry. It goes very well with beet-carrot-parsnip/turnip-potato roast.
Then I serve them warm with a little salt and pepper. Works every time.

[alkapal]

can you say "beta-carotene"? wow, that looks delicious!

[Breezychow]

Canned beets are actually one of the few canned vegetables I can stand (the others being artichokes, corn, tomatoes, & shell beans like kidney, black, etc. Sometimes even tiny white canned potatoes can be good in a pinch.)

I like to drain them, then heat them gently in some orange juice to which I've added a little orange zest & sometimes a tiny dollop of honey. Goes nice with plain baked or broiled poultry.

They also pair nicely with goat cheese & chopped walnuts in a green salad.

[Mestralle]

I totally agree with your list of canned vegetables (though I generally buy corn frozen over canned). I tried fresh beets a couple times over the summer, but the taste difference wasn't worth the hassle to me(or having pink fingers for days afterwards).

Most of the pickled beets I've tried are a bit too sweet for my taste. I use plain and either add them to a garden salad or dress them with a little vinegar and add a bleu cheese or feta. If I have the time, I'll use my German potato salad recipe and sub the beets for the potatoes.

[VeggieHead]

To keep your hands from looking like you were just arrested... find some other varieties, instead of the Bull's Blood. My personal fave is the Mangel... and Chiogga. I'm not a beet snob, though. While I will eat them from a can or raw, fresh from the dirt, I much prefer them roasted... with some spinach and goat cheese. :)

[randyjl]

Pickle them! Or buy some great home pickled ones.

[pdxgastro]

Totes! I had a coworker who pickled canned beets. I only like them pickled.

[nomadchowwoman]

I love fresh beets, but not crazy for canned--but I haven't tried any lately and I've never tried TJ's. Your doctoring sounds good, esp. w/your tandoori chicken. And, yes, I always love red onion w/beets.

[Rasam]

Hi Alka: I must confess I do not feel any love for canned beets. I love fresh beets, when roasted, sauteed, etc. But the canned beets I've tried so far have been flabby, overcooked, tasteless, no matter how much masala I dump on them.

Do you really like canned beets?

[escondido123]

Canned beets are one of the few foods that sets off a gag reflex for me. I guess that's because I didn't like them when I was little but was forced to finish at school lunch or no recess. Got caught hiding it in my milk carton and was forced to eat it...took too big a bite and almost choked to death. More than 50 years later, I'm still iffy on fresh red beets but have come to almost love golden ones sliced and fried in olive oil.