beets

Moosewood Cookbook Borscht

April 1, 2013 by Erica

Moosewood Cookbook Borscht

Wait, come back.

This is delicious, I promise.

For some people, there is probably no phrase in the English/Yiddish language more unwelcome than “Moosewood Cookbook borscht.” You might be thinking, “Mushy cabbage without any meat to redeem it? No thanks!” But I think borscht gets a bad rap mostly because of its name; the word seems to conjure up images of a smelly old Russian lady standing over you until you finish your meal. It certainly sounds like something you’d have to be forced to eat.

Moosewood Cookbook Borscht

Luckily, I am not a smelly old Russian lady, and I’m probably several thousand miles away from you. (This is good for both of us, because I prefer to hide behind my computer screen.) I won’t force you to make this or eat it. I will just strongly recommend it, since it’s one of the best meals to come out of my kitchen in a while. Also, I’ll show you pretty pictures of it in the hopes that that will convince you.

…

Red Velvet Beet Cake with Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

February 4, 2013 by Erica

Yes, it tastes like beets.

Had to get that out of the way.

On Saturday I mentioned that I had pinned many beet cake recipes in preparation for a post this week. Well, here it is! A bright red cake filled with roasted and pureed beets. Yum?

If you don’t like beets, I’m not sure if you’ll like this, to be honest. You can taste them, although if you didn’t know they were there, you might not guess it. If you’re OK with beets, though, you will absolutely love this cake, if for no other reason than the fun color.

In general, I’m not a huge fan of “secret ingredients” (a.k.a. hiding vegetables in things), but the beets aren’t hidden here. Boom, there they are! You can taste their earthy flavor and you can deeeefinitely see them right in front of your nose.

Can you believe there’s not a drop of food coloring in this whole cake?

We all know I’m obsessed with colorful food, so I just can’t get over this bright red batter. So beautiful! And perfect for a certain romantic holiday coming up.

And then there are the raspberries that make the frosting such a nice girly pink. Actually, these photos don’t even do the frosting justice. It was even pinker than this!

I made this cake on a snowy day, and learned the hard way that pink frosting is the most difficult thing EVER to photograph. Low blue light + reflective Barbie-pink surfaces = photography nightmare. Sigh. It tastes good, I promise.

Speaking of Barbie… I made this cake with Valentine’s Day in mind, but I can’t help but think that it would be adorable for a little girl’s birthday party. Or a big girl’s birthday party! As long as that girl loves pink.

So what do you think… will you allow some vegetables in your cake? I think these beets are pretty enough that they can get away with practically anything.

Red Velvet Beet Cake with Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Hands-on time

45 mins

Cook time

2 hours

Total time

2 hours 45 mins

This red velvet cake has a secret ingredient: beets! Topped with raspberry cream cheese frosting, it is bright pink from tip to toe.

Author: Erica

Yields: 1 cake, serves about 16

Ingredients

For the red velvet beet cake:

3 medium-sized beets
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature, divided
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
3 oz. dark chocolate (I used Ghirardelli’s 60%)
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup maple syrup
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg

For the raspberry cream cheese frosting:

12 oz frozen raspberries
juice of ½ a lemon (about 2 Tbsp)
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar

For garnish (optional):

fresh raspberries

Instructions

First, roast and peel the beets. This is my preferred method. Then roughly chop the beets and puree them in a food processor until smooth. You should have about 1 cup of beet puree. Set aside. (This can also be done ahead of time.)
Preheat oven to 375. Grease and flour a bundt pan (or any cake pan of your choice).
In a large bowl, beat together 3/4 cup of the butter with the brown sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Melt the chocolate with the remaining butter in the microwave in 30-second increments. Beat the melted chocolate mixture, vanilla extract, maple syrup, and beet puree into the butter/sugar/egg mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flours, baking soda, salt, and spices. Dump into the wet ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs. This took me about 40 minutes, but the original recipe says 60-70. The baking time will vary depending on which type of pan you use, so I would suggest starting to check at 40 minutes.
Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. After cooling, you can frost the cake immediately or wrap it in plastic and refrigerate it for up to 2 days before continuing.
While cake cools, make the raspberry cream cheese frosting. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the frozen raspberries and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the raspberries have broken down. Pour through a mesh strainer into a small bowl and cool completely. This should yield between 3/4 and 1 cup raspberry sauce.
Cream together the cream cheese and butter. Sift in the powdered sugar and beat until incorporated. Beat in the raspberry sauce. You can choose to use as much of the sauce as you want for a frosting anywhere from subtle to shocking pink!
Pour frosting over cooled cake and garnish with fresh raspberries.
The cake will keep covered for several days in the fridge. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Notes

Adapted from Straight from the Farm and Verve & Sass.

Christmas Couscous

December 18, 2012 by Erica

Second installment in this week’s series of “maybe you don’t have your Christmas dinner planned yet” posts: Christmas couscous.

How pretty and festive is this?!

This couscous is all my mom’s doing. She has served it as a Christmas side dish a few times now, and it’s my faaaaavorite. It’s all about the colors.

Beets and onion are cooked in with Israeli couscous, turning everything bright pinkish red. Pretty colors + only one pot = win.

Not only does this dish look festive, but Israeli couscous is kind of appropriate to Christmas if you think about it… right? Bethlehem couscous?

(I just made that up right now. Let’s forget it and focus on the pretty food.)

This also makes a delicious non-holiday meal as pictured – served with sweet potato and sauteed spinach. Now that’s my favorite. And good thing. Because did I mention that Nate is away all week? Guess what I’m eating for lunch every day.

Miiiiine… all mine.

Christmas Couscous

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1-2 Tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 onion, diced (yellow or red will work)
1 pound beets (about 2 medium-sized or 3 baby beets), peeled and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
1 cup Israeli couscous
1 1/4 cups water
1/4 tsp kosher salt + more to taste
pepper to taste

Instructions:

Add the olive oil to a small-ish pot over medium heat. Saute the garlic and onion until soft but not brown. Add the beets and saute for about 3 minutes. (This ensures that they’ll be done at the same time as the couscous.)

Stir in the couscous, water and salt. Simmer for 8-10 minutes, until the couscous is fluffy and the beets are tender. Add pepper and additional salt to taste.

Serve hot!

Time:

20-25 minutes

Citrus Beet Salad with Rosemary Vinaigrette

November 27, 2012 by Erica

How about a salad?

I don’t know about you, but after a weekend of bingeing on Thanksgiving leftovers, that’s just what I need.

This salad makes me happy because it’s fresh and colorful, while still being made with winter produce. You may not be able to tell from my 8:00 am iPhone photos here, but between the beets and the citrus, the colors are beautiful.

I’ve been mildly obsessed with beets lately, starting with the roasted beet hummus I made for Thanksgiving. They’re just so pretty! If you’ve been scared of roasting beets, like I was before last week, don’t be. You stick them in the oven and forget about them, then easily push the skin off with a knife once they’re cool. Easy as pie! No… way easier than pie.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Citrus Beet Salad with Rosemary Vinaigrette

Hands-on time

20 mins

Cook time

60 mins

Total time

1 hour 20 mins

The beets can be roasted ahead of time and stored in the fridge either before or after peeling.

Author: Coffee & Quinoa

Yields: 6

Ingredients

FOR THE SALAD:
1 medium beet (or 2 small beets)
1 grapefruit, peeled and segmented
2 oranges, peeled and segmented
1 avocado, chopped
5 oz. baby spinach
several handfuls pine nuts, toasted
FOR THE DRESSING:
juice of 1 orange
1 tsp finely chopped rosemary
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

To roast the beet(s), preheat oven to 400. Trim stems and scrub off dirt. Loosely wrap in foil. Roast for 60 minutes or until a fork slides easily to the center of the beet. Remove from oven, unwrap and set aside until cool enough to handle.
Once beet has cooled, slide the skin off using the back of a knife. Slice off top and bottom and chop into small cubes.
To make dressing, whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl.
To assemble, layer salad ingredients and top with dressing.

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