Curried Beets: Sounds Weird, Trying Anyway

You may remember my awesome neighbour? Not only is she an amazing photographer, she has a lovely garden that she lets me pillage on occasion. I was a little leery of the beets she gifted me with, but I found a recipe (in an old Chatelaine cookbook) that sounds interesting: Curried Beets. If anything can get me to love beets, it is a combination of Chatelaine and curry. What I really liked about this recipe is that it got rid of the "dirt" taste that I always associate with beets but kept the nice firm texture and undertones.

Also, me big seester gave me a metric tonne of spices and a spice encyclopedia back on my birthday, so I am going to make a different kind of curry, just for kicks. And on!

For the curry (massale), you will need:

2 Tbsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp cardamom pods
1 tsp whole cloves
1/2 piece cinnamon stick
1 tsp ground chili (or flakes)
1 tsp grated nutmeg

I like this curry blend because it tastes very similar to the Rogan Josh mixture, without the crazy Thai chili heat. It is super easy: dry roast the whole spices - coriander, cumin, peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon and cardamom (normally I would advocate for removing the seeds from the pods, otherwise it gets a little bark-y up in there, but dry roasting them makes them brittle and they break right down) in a frying pan at medium heat until they smell and gain a little bit of colour, set aside to cool. When cool, process in a spice grinder then stir in the chili and nutmeg. If you are using chili flakes as I am, throw them in the bottom of the spice grinder and add in the roasted spices on top before processing. Done!

Measure

So pretty

Just in the warm pan, about 30 seconds to a minute is enough

Little bit of colour...

Grate the nutmeg

Grind cooled spices then add to nutmeg

For the curried beets, you will need:

1 1/2 lbs beets, unpeeled and stems trimmed
1 medium onion, sliced
2 tsp butter
1 tsp curry powder (see above!)
1/2 tsp cumin
Cinnamon, salt & pepper
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar

Not much prep here, just slice your onions and trim the stems of the beets. You can use the beet greens as you would spinach, they wilt about the same and have lots of nutritive benefits. Do NOT use them the same way you would kale, nooo bueno.

Back to the beets themselves! Place the trimmed beets in a pot full of cold water, bring to a boil and cook for 20 minutes, until slightly underdone. That is a super lame descriptor, but it's all I got. Time it! Set aside and run some cold water over.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add in the sliced onion and cook until almost soft, about 3 minutes.

I'm using my new sauté pan so that it knows what it's in for

Sprinkle on the curry and cumin, cook for 2 more minutes. Turn off and set aside.

The beet skins should just rub right off, fingers crossed, then cut them into a small-ish dice.

Return the pan to heat, add the beets and cook for 2 more minutes, stirring to coat the beets in the buttery, curry-y goodness. Serve!

Since I pretty much followed the recipe in the book, I will use their calcs for calories, minus a teaspoon of butter (a whole tablespoon seemed obscene): 45 calories per serving, six servings total.

Neaaaarrrrr

Far!

Enjoy!