Beets - Healthy Recipes And More

Beetroot

The beetroot meets the requirements of modern and healthy nutrition. Nevertheless, the image of rustic poor people's food with the earthy taste still sticks to it. But all kinds of delicious things can be conjured up from it. The intense red dye betanin is also used as a dye in the food industry. They are usually consumed cooked as a salad or pickled vegetables. They are also digestible as raw vegetables in salads or as juice…

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• Botany
• ingredients
• Use and preparation
• storage

Botany

The beetroot (Beta vulgaris) belongs to the goosefoot family and is related to Swiss chard, sugar beet and fodder beet. It is known in parts of Austria under the name "Rohnen" and in Germany also under "Beetroot". The spherical or oblong tubers have a brown-red skin and weigh up to 600 grams. Beets are available all year round because they are easy to store in cool storage rooms. From May there is the new harvest with young, small tubers.

ingredients

Red beets have a high nutritional value, but because of the high water content of around 90 percent, they have very few calories. The beets are rich in minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and iron as well as the vitamins of the B group, vitamin C and folic acid. The intense red dye betanin is also used as a dye in the food industry. The sweet and sour aroma of the beetroot is due to various organic acids.

Beetroot ingredients	per 100 g of edible portion, raw	Beetroot ingredients	per 100 g of edible portion, raw
Energy (kcal)	41	Folic acid (µg)	83
Fat (g)	0.1	Vitamin A (µg)	2
Protein (g)	1.5	Vitamin B1 (mg)	0.03
Carbohydrates (g)	8.4	Vitamin B2 (mg)	0.04
Dietary fiber (g)	2.5	Niacin (mg)	0.2
Potassium (mg)	407	Vitamin B6 (mg)	0.05
Calcium (mg)	29	Vitamin C (mg)	10
Magnesium (mg)	25th	Vitamin E (mg)	0.05
Iron (mg)	0.9

Like many other vegetables, beets store nitrates from fertilizers, which can be converted into nitrosamines in the body. When consumed in normal amounts, the nitrate load does not pose a health risk. By consuming vitamin C at the same time, the conversion into nitrosamines can be inhibited.

Use and preparation

Red beets can be used in many ways in the kitchen: They are usually consumed cooked as a salad or pickled vegetables. They are also digestible as raw vegetables in salads or as juice. As a warm vegetable side dish, they go well with meat and fish and go well in soups and stews. Borschtsch, a stew with beetroot, white cabbage and meat, is well known from Russia. Horseradish, ginger, caraway seeds and herbs such as coriander, dill, parsley and chives go well with beets.

Beets are boiled in salted water. Beets weighing around 200 grams are cooked in 50 to 60 minutes. Small young beets are done faster. They are best cut and peeled after cooking.

Note The petioles and leaves can be used like spinach.

storage

When shopping, make sure the peel is undamaged and smooth (as few side roots as possible). Raw beets can be stored in the fridge's vegetable compartment for about a week. They spoil easily when cooked and should be used up quickly. When packaged airtight and cooled, cooked “raw beets” can only be kept for one day.

Note The beets should be wrapped in paper or foil for storage in the refrigerator.