It is betaine that causes some people to pass reddish coloured urine, called beeturia, after eating beets. It’s a harmless side effect that will subside once the food leaves your system.

Betaine acts as an antioxidant and also helps fight inflammation in the body, a risk factor for many chronic diseases. Research has shown that people who consume the most betaine from foods – versus the least – have lower blood levels of inflammatory immune compounds, including C-reactive protein.

Beets are good for your liver, too. That’s because the liver uses betaine to neutralize toxins so they can be removed from the body. Beets also offer plenty of folate, a B vitamin used to create and repair DNA and make red blood cells. And beets are a good source of potassium, a mineral that helps keep blood pressure in check.

It’s true that beets have more natural sugar than other vegetables (although considerably less than fruit), but they are still low in calories. One-half cup of cooked beets, for example, delivers only 37 calories. (The same serving size of broccoli has 27 calories.)

If long cooking times deter you from eating beets more often, oven roast or boil whole, unpeeled, scrubbed beets in advance. That way it takes only a few minutes to heat them or add them to a salad. Or, cut unpeeled medium-sized beets into quarters and steam them for 15 minutes. You can also grill slices of raw beets, brushed with olive oil, for eight to 10 minutes per side.

Per serving, cooked beets have nearly twice as much betaine as raw beets. Folate and potassium are similar for cooked and raw beets, provided you cook them in their skin.

Don’t stop at the beetroot. Beet greens are also packed with nutrition, in particular beta-carotene and lutein, an antioxidant that helps maintain healthy vision. Toss washed beet greens into salads, add them to soups and pasta sauces, or sauté them in olive oil and crushed garlic until tender.

Beet nutrition

Per 1/2 cup of cooked, sliced red beets:

37 calories

0 grams fat

1.7 grams fibre

6.7 grams sugar

259 mg potassium

68 mcg folate

217 mg betaine

Beets seven ways

Go raw. Add grated raw beets to salads, coleslaw and wraps.

Blend. Purée chopped, cooked beets into a fruit or green smoothie.

Roast. Include beets in a medley of oven-roasted root vegetables, such as carrots, parsnips and turnips. Beets take longer to cook than other vegetables, so pre-roast them, then add to the other vegetables near the end of their cooking time.

Sauté. Heat chopped, precooked beets in olive oil with freshly squeezed orange juice and grated orange rind. Garnish with chopped chives.

Toss. Serve sliced roasted or grilled beets over a bed of greens. Add orange slices, toasted walnuts and a sprinkle of feta or goat’s cheese.

Slurp. Enjoy a bowl of borscht, a traditional Russian soup made with beets.

Snack. Bake beet chips by tossing peeled and thinly sliced beets (use a mandolin) with olive oil. Spread slices evenly on a baking sheet; bake at 200 C until crispy. Sprinkle with sea salt.

By Leslie Beck

www.theglobeandmail.com

Ingredients

2 ½ tbsp olive oil, plus a little bit more for the pan
3 tbsp butter, soft and unsalted
1/3 cup cocoa powder, sugar-free
3/4 cup all -purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
2/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp soda powder
1/2 cup Greek strained yogurt
2 ½ tbsp water
1/2 scant tsp vanilla powder
2/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
Sour cherry sweet preserve as topping

Instructions

Place the rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375F/180C.
Butter a round cake pan 10-in./22.5 cm in diameter and sprinkle with cocoa powder.
Mix the flour, 2/3 cup cocoa powder, baking powder, soda, and a little bit of salt in a bowl.
In another bowl, whisk the yogurt, water, and vanilla.
Combine the olive oil, butter, and sugar in the large mixer bowl, on medium speed, until the mixture very fluffy and pale yellow.
Add the eggs one by one, beating all the while.
Turn the mixer to low speed and add half of the flour mixture.
Pour in the yogurt mixture and the remaining flour mixture. Beat all the ingredients together until smooth and combined, and then transfer to the cake pan.
Bake the cake for about 30-40 minutes. Insert a toothpick in the center to test it for doneness. If it comes out clean, the cake is baked.

By Diane Kochilas

www.dianekochilas.com

To get even more whole grains in there I replaced the all purpose flour with whole wheat flour. These Greek style tomato fritters came together just as easily as the zucchini fritters with the only real difference being the amount of flour that was required to handle the extra juices from the tomatoes. The tomato fritters were so good! They were nice and crispy on the outside and warm and moist and full of flavour on the inside. The tomato and feta combo is a great one and it worked really well in these fritters. I served the tomato fritters with a side of tzatziki, a Greek cucumber salad, for dipping.
(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

4 large tomatoes (peeled, seeded and diced)
4 sundried tomatoes (chopped)
4 ounces feta (crumbled)
1/4 cup herbs (such as dill, mint, parsley, chopped)
2 green onions (sliced)
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon paprika
2 eggs
1/4 cup fine bulgur wheat
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup whole wheat flour
* whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

1. Mix the tomatoes, feta, herbs, green onions, oregano, paprika, eggs, bulgur, salt and pepper in a large bowl.
2. Slowly mix in some whole wheat flour until the mixture becomes thick enough to form into patties.
3. Heat the oil in a pan.
4. Form the tomato mixture into patties and fry in the oil until golden brown on both sides, about 4 minutes per side.

Author: Kevin Lynch

www.closetcooking.com

 

 

But then we get mix-ins of gently cooked shallots and spinach, and a healthy helping of dill. The whole dish is finished with toasty breadcrumbs and crumbled feta cheese.

INGREDIENTS

3 slices crustless white bread, torn into small pieces
9 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
Kosher salt, to taste
200 gr hollow pasta, preferably elbow macaroni
1/4 cup flour
3 cups milk
4 cups grated graviera or kefalotyri cheese (about 350 gr)
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
8 large shallots, finely chopped
16 oz. baby spinach, roughly chopped
8 scallions cut into 1/4"-thick rounds
1/3 cup roughly chopped fresh dill
1 3/4 cups crumbled feta (about 350 gr)

INSTRUCTIONS                

1. Put bread into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until finely ground. Put bread crumbs and 3 tbsp. butter into a small bowl and combine; set aside. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until cooked halfway through, about 3 minutes. Drain pasta, rinse with cold water, and set aside.

2. Heat remaining butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and cook, whisking constantly, for 1 minute. Still whisking constantly, slowly drizzle in milk and cook until sauce has thickened and coats the back of a spoon, 10–15 minutes. Remove pan from heat. Stir in graviera, cinnamon, and nutmeg and season with salt and pepper; set béchamel sauce aside.

3. Heat oven to 180°. Heat oil in a pot over medium heat. Add shallots and cook, stirring often, until soft, 3–4 minutes. Add spinach and scallions and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until wilted, about 3 minutes. Stir in the reserved béchamel sauce, the dill, and the reserved pasta and transfer mixture to a 22cm x 30cm baking dish. Sprinkle evenly with reserved bread crumbs and the feta. Bake until golden brown and bubbly, about 30 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving. Serves 8–10.

For more information, please visit Sources: www.thekitchn.com and www.saveur.com

Ingredients

1/2 kilo unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
2 ½ teaspoons pure almond extract
8 tablespoons powdered sugar
⅛ teaspoon baking soda
5 to 5 ½ cups flour
Pinch of salt

Makes about 5 dozen

To read this recipe in full, please visit: Cooking For Keeps

There are differences among fats, of course, but with trans-fats in full retreat and lard and butter making comebacks, the whole fat-eating thing is starting to make some sense. Of course, the key word is moderation. You can eat fat as long as it’s high quality and you don’t eat it to the exclusion of plants.

That’s one reason you shouldn’t reject deep-frying at home; I do it about once a month. The second reason is that you know you love it. The third is that it can be fast and easy. The fourth is that you can deep-fry plants. (And anything else.)

Frying is thought of as messy, but this can be mitigated by the simplest of measures: using a pot that is heavy, broad and deep, like a well-made stockpot. Choose this, add a fair amount of oil and the process is simplified and neat.

Which oil? How much? Since most deep-frying is done at around 180 degrees Celsius, this whole notion that olive oil is inappropriate for frying is nonsense; it smokes at 190 (and smoking isn’t the end of the story, either). So olive oil — especially “pure,” which is a step below extra-virgin and in theory less expensive — is a fine option, especially for something in which you’d like its flavor, which could include any of the recipes here.

Unless, that is, you’re seasoning tempura with soy sauce, in which case you might choose peanut oil, which is as flavorful as olive oil, but obviously different. The third excellent option is grapeseed oil, which is as close to neutral as you can find.

None of these is as inexpensive as vegetable oil, or soy, or corn or Wesson. And if you don’t have problems with chemical extraction, you might choose one of them; they are, after all, what is used for nearly all commercial deep-frying. If, however, you can afford it and you want the best possible frying experience, use one of those three mentioned above, or at least a cold-pressed neutral oil like safflower or sunflower.

Money is an issue, since on the face of it, frying isn’t cheap. When it comes to the “how much” question, I’d say around 6 cups is probably enough in most cases.

But more is generally better, and you can reuse the oil quite a few times for deep-frying, stir-frying or sautéing, as long as you strain out most solids — and you need not be fanatic about this; a quick run through a strainer is fine — and keep it in the refrigerator. (You might consider keeping oil you’re not using in the near future in the refrigerator anyway; rancidity comes from heat and light and it’s nasty. If you have an old bottle of oil sitting around in your kitchen, smell it; you’ll probably throw it away.)

The goal of frying is to crisp the outside perfectly and cook the inside just enough, while keeping the whole package from absorbing more than a bit of oil. Most of this happens magically, as long as you follow the rules, which I’ll get to in a second. There are three or four levels of protection you can give the interior, and all of them become satisfying crusts — again, as long as everything goes right.

The first layer of protection is the stuff itself: you allow the outside of the food you’re cooking to become the crisp part (that’s like a French fry, or falafel or “naked” fried chicken). Then there’s the second layer: a light dusting of cornmeal, flour or the like (I like this with fried squid or fried chicken, especially when seasoned heavily with black pepper). Then a fluffy coating, like tempura or a doughy, pancake-like batter (the latter, it seems to me, is often — perhaps usually — overkill). And finally, the old flour, egg and bread crumb treatment, which is, well, yum.

They’re all pretty much appropriate for anything. You choose the food you want to fry, you choose the coating, you follow these general instructions and it’ll work.

Start by putting at least two inches of oil in a heavy and, as I said, deep pot. Less than two inches and you may not be deep-frying; it’ll work, but you might have to turn the food more often, it might stick to the bottom a bit and it might cook less evenly.

Turn the heat to medium or medium-high and go about your business. Part of that business might be finding a thermometer, because you want that oil to be between 350 and 365 in almost every instance. The heavy pot will help keep that temperature stable.

You don’t have to have a thermometer, though, because there are a couple of other ways to know when the oil is ready. It’s just about right when a pinch of flour sizzles without burning immediately; that’s not super-accurate, but if you then add a single piece of food and it first sinks a bit and then immediately rises to the top, the oil is perfect. If it sits on the bottom like a flounder, the oil isn’t hot enough; if it doesn’t sink at all the oil is too hot. The oil is also too hot if it’s smoking.

Add your food in batches and don’t crowd; you do not want the temperature to plummet, nor do you want the pieces of food nestling against one another. (Though it’s fine if they bump.) You may or may not have to turn the pieces, but that’s easy, because they’ll be floating and they won’t stick. Remove them with a slotted spoon, tongs or spider; you’ll know when they’re done because the color will be evenly gorgeous.

Take it slow and either eat the food as it comes out of the fat (you can drain on paper towels or, if you want to be fancy, a cloth napkin) or keep it warm for as little time as possible in a low oven. Myself, I like to fry when people are standing around eating the food as fast as I can produce it; that is really fun. And good for you.

By Mark Bittman

www.nytimes.com