recipes for beets - Stuff Parents Need

We’ve been getting beautiful beets from our local farmer every week for the past month, now. And while I have come to appreciate how tasty roasted beets can actually be, I still find the vegetable to be rather cumbersome, overall, to prepare, especially since the dark pink color so easily stains your hands.

But since we have already joined the community supported agriculture program for the season, and since we know that a lot of hard work and love went into growing these beautiful organic veggies, I want to get my full use out of them. So I decided to do some internet research to see if the beautiful red stems and green leaves on the beets were edible.

Oh heck yes they are! Don’t you dare throw them out! Let me show you a great way to prepare them.

First give everything a good wash in some running water. Then chop up the stems into bite-sized pieces, like this:

Next, chop up your beet green leaves.

Next, I got out my Reynolds Grilling Foil (disclosure, I’m a Reynolds Real Mom, but am not writing this post as such…just sharing what I really used!). My intention was to grill the greens since we were using our grill that day, already. I simply made a foil packet for the greens, and generously sprinkled them with oil, salt and pepper. I also added a little bit of vegetable stock (2 Tbsp, maybe) to ensure that the greens had plenty of liquid to help them soften up a bit.

I then brought up two of the sides to meet each other, and folded them down twice. And I repeated this step on the two sides to create a packet. I let these cook on the grill, right next to some delicious burger patties, for about 20 minutes.

The final product was lacking in beauty, but it tasted absolutely delicious. I was happy to have found a use for beet greens, and frankly, I think I prefer them to the beets, themselves! If you aren’t grilling out any time soon but still want to try this recipe, just follow all the instructions above and put them in the oven at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes and you’ll get more or less the same result. Easy, delicious and decidedly frugal! 🙂