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Your family will beg for seconds when you add these tangy orange beets to your side-dish repertoire.
Beets: The Forgotten Vegetable
Beets seem to have gone out of fashion. I read a lot of food sites and recipe pages, but I rarely see beets represented.
The fresh variety are a little messy to make because of the deep red juice that stains your hands something fierce. I opt for the canned variety except if I want candy cane beets which you can only buy fresh. Orange colored ones are also only available fresh.
A Request From A Friend
I love this veggie and practically any way they can be made. However, I haven’t eaten them for years, and I don’t just mean a couple of years; more like 20. I don’t know how I’d gotten away from that either as my late husband and I both liked them.
Most Fridays I cook a hot lunch for a friend (who is one of my taste testers) and his employees. I asked what veggie they’d like with the meal, and he said, “How about beets?” The request came a little out of left field because I wasn’t expecting it, but then figured why not?
Naturally, I wanted to do more than just open and heat up a can, so I made a recipe that my husband and I always liked–especially with a meatloaf (which was that Friday’s lunch).
Orange Is A Great Match
Orange complements this root vegetable so well!
The tangy sweetness offsets the earthiness of them. In fact, many beet recipes include an acidic note for that reason. It seems to bring out a lot of flavor in a vegetable that’s rather mellow just by itself.
The Recipe
Orange Beets
Ingredients
- 2 cans about 14 oz each whole beets, reserve 1/4 cup of juice then drain
- 1 tbs cornstarch
- 3/4 cup orange juice
- 1/4 cup beet juice
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 tsp orange zest
- dash of pepper
Instructions
- in a small saucepan, combine the sugar and cornstarch; stir well.
- Slowly mix in the orange juice; mixture should be smooth and lump free.
- Stir in the beet juice.
- Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until liquid begins to thicken. Bring to boil and cook 1 minute.
- Add drained beets and heat through.
