Tag Archives: beet greens

Beef and Beets Stir Fry

What a week! It was busy, full of ups and downs, but, in the end, overall positive. The best news is that I was accepted into an online Doctor of Nursing Practice program!

In all the craziness, we also had our first frost on Friday night. The red bell peppers in my garden mostly didn’t ripen, but green peppers are good, too. I spent most of Saturday afternoon prepping vegetables-the last of the peppers from the garden, plus everything I got in our CSA box on Friday. We picked all the ripe tomatoes, and I’m covering the plants in the hopes of getting a few more to ripen. Amazingly, the squash plants that I thought were done have started producing again, so maybe we will get a few more decent sized ones. The weather is supposed to warm up again.

Beef and Beets Stir Fry

I was so excited to see that the farm left the tops on our beets this week. (Usually, they cut them off and use them for their juicing box.) I immediately decided to make a stir fry. I found a Thai Basil stir fry sauce in the Oriental foods section at the grocery store, and it gave this an amazing flavor! My husband says this is “a keeper.”

Beef and Beets Stir Fry
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Oriental
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 1 pound sirloin, thinly sliced
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 5 beets, roots peeled and cut into matchsticks, greens washed and trimmed
  • 2 medium carrots, thinly sliced
  • 1 small onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 bell pepper, thinly sliced
  • ¾ cup Thai Basil stir fry sauce
  • 2 cups cooked rice
Instructions
  1. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in wok. Stir fry sirloin and garlic until meat is desired doneness. Remove from wok.
  2. Add 2 tablespoons oil to the wok. Add beet roots and carrots, stir fry until the vegetables start to soften, about 7 minutes.
  3. Add onion and bell pepper to the wok. Continue to stir fry about 3 minutes.
  4. Add beet greens, stir fry until greens are wilted and vegetables are tender-crisp.
  5. Return beef to pan, stir fry to combine.
  6. Pour stir fry sauce over, continue to stir fry until sauce is heated through. Serve over rice.

 

Japanese Turnips and Beet Greens

Japanese Turnips and Beet GreensWe have gotten Japanese Sweet Turnips in our box a couple of times now, and I really like their mild flavor. I found several recipes for cooking them with their greens. Unfortunately, ours came without the greens attached. So, I decided to use the beet greens instead for a simple side dish on a work night.

Japanese Turnips and Beet Greens
Recipe type: Side
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2
 
Ingredients
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 bunch (about 100) Japanese turnips, cleaned and thinly sliced
  • Greens from a bunch of beets, leaves only, sliced
  • ½ cup chicken broth
Instructions
  1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Saute sliced turnips about 5 minutes.
  2. Add beet greens. Continue to saute about 2 minutes.
  3. Add broth. Cover skillet. Cook until greens are wilted, about 5 minutes.

Happy eating!

Ruth

Beets and Greens with Cheese and Pomegranate

beets ad greens with cheese and pomegranateWe got pomegranates in our box this week, a fruit I would NEVER have bought. That is the beauty of the CSA box-getting us to try produce we wouldn’t have otherwise considered. I was looking for something to do with the beet greens, and came across this recipe from yummly.com for Swiss chard, and thought I would just substitute the beet greens. Since I was substituting, I decided to use some of the pomegranate seeds instead of the raisins. I served this with pork chops, and my guests really liked it! I hope you will, too.

Beets and Greens with Cheese and Pomegranate
Recipe type: Side
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6-8
 
Ingredients
  • 4 medium beets with green tops
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • ½ onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon green chile
  • 1-14 ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
  • seeds from half a pomegranate, cleaned
  • juice of 1 lime
  • ⅓ cup crumbled feta cheese
  • 2 tablespoons pine nuts
Instructions
  1. Wrap beets individually in foil. Roast at 400 degrees until tender, about 45-60 minutes. Allow to cool. Peel beets, then cut into ½ inch cubes. (This can be done ahead of time.)
  2. Separate beet green leaves from the stems. Chop the leaves into 1 inch pieces. Slice the stalks into thin slices.
  3. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Cook chopped leaves in water for 1 minute. Drain and reserve.
  4. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. And sliced stems and saute until they start to soften, about 5 minutes. Add onion and garlic, saute 3 minutes more.
  5. Add chile, drained tomatoes, and pomegranate seeds. Reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are soft, about 15 minutes.
  6. Add cooked beet greens, stir and heat through. Remove from heat. Add lime juice, stir.
  7. Transfer to serving dish, sprinkle with feta and pine nuts.

Happy eating!

Ruth

“Leftovers” Fried Rice

leftovers fried riceI had 2 beets left from the bunch after I made the Chocolate Beet Cake, plus all the tops. I remembered that my sister in law had suggested using broccoli tops in fried rice, so I decided to try it with beet greens. I have been trying to clean out my refrigerator in preparation for a trip out of town, and also had some carrots and green onions sitting around. I found some leftover diced ham in the freezer. I make brown rice in bulk and freeze it in 1 cup portions, so I pulled out some of those, too. This ended up to be a really quick dish to prepare. (I’ve given you the long version instructions, in case you don’t have pre-cooked rice.)

Because I used beets, EVERYTHING turned an interesting shade of pink. However, it tasted really good!

"Leftovers" Fried Rice
Recipe type: Main Dish
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4-6
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup uncooked brown rice
  • 2¼ cup water
  • 2 beets
  • 1 cup carrots, chopped
  • ⅓ cup green onion tops, chopped
  • 2 cups julienned beet tops (discard stems)
  • 1 cup ham, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons canola oil
  • 4 eggs, beaten
  • 5 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
Instructions
  1. Cook brown rice in water, according to package directions. It usually takes 40-50 minutes. This can be done ahead; just reheat the rice a bit prior to making fried rice.
  2. While rice cooks, cook beets and carrots. I did this in the microwave, but you could also do it on the stove top. (The beets took about 5 minutes, the carrots 3 minutes. I cooked them both in a little water.) Peel and chop beets.
  3. Heat canola oil in wok or deep skillet. Stir fry beets, carrots, green onions, beet tops, and ham for about 5 minutes, until beet tops are wilting.
  4. Add beaten eggs to pan and scramble the eggs with the vegetables.
  5. Add rice and stir to combine.
  6. Add soy sauce and stir.
  7. Add sesame oil just prior to serving.
Notes
Note that the prep is mostly done while the rice is cooking, it probably takes 1 hour total to make this dish.

Nancy, thanks for the great suggestion! It turned out great.

Happy eating!

Ruth