It’s wintertime here in California, and a vegetable that keeps extremely well during the winter months are beets. Growing up in Ohio, I only ever tried canned beets (which taste just like canned corn to me), and when I finally had steamed fresh beets I finally understood their magnificence. The color! The natural sweetness! I love them.

Beets are great for the liver, and also provide a nice dose of folic acid, fiber, manganese and potassium. I generally choose medium size beets (smaller than the size of a tennis ball) so they are more tender and you can buy them with the greens attached to sauté separately. The greens are similar to swiss chard and be part of your leafy greens rotation. When storing, remove the greens so they won’t draw more nutrients from the beetroot.

I recently went to a local restaurant in Oakland called the Kebabery and tried one of their side dishes called a beet mash and I was blown away! I wanted to try my own version to go on top of salad greens and it’s turned into a Nourished Belly staple, plus a great potluck dish.

Beet and Dill Purée

(makes roughly 8-10 servings)

Ingredients

4-6 medium size organic beets

handful of chopped dill (mint would go well too!)

1 tablespoon rice wine

1 tablespoon olive oil

sea salt to taste

Kitchen Tools:

Steamer Basket

Immersion Blender

Directions

1) Wash obvious dirt off beets and quarter or halve them.

2) Place a steamer tray in a medium size saucepan and fill saucepan with 1/4 inch of water.

3) Place beets in and cover, bring to a simmer.

4) Steam for 20 minutes, beets are done when a fork can slide easily through the largest one.

5) Place in medium size mixing bowl, and with an immersion blender, blend until chunky.

6) Add olive oil, rice wine, dill and sprinkle with sea salt. Taste. Add more ingredients if necessary.

Eat warm or allow to cool and eat over salad! It’s lovely with goat cheese.