What to do with beetroot stems?

I headed into Macro Wholefoods today and was overwhelmed by the big, bright bunches of super fresh baby beets and just had to buy them. And then they had bunches of bright green asparagus on sale so, you know, I just had to buy them too (along with a massive bag of limes for $3)

I decided to make a vegetable salad of baby beets and sweet potato, with asparagus and wilted baby spinach leaves, with a bit of balsamic vinegar dressing. I reckon you could have easily put either goat or feta cheese in, or perhaps tossed through some walnuts, but just a simple balsamic was delicious enough too.


But the problem was I had all of these gorgeous bright pink beetroot stems that I couldn't bear to throw out:

Too pretty to donate to the compost bin...

Apparently no one really cooks with beetroot stems. The only recipe I could find was this one for keerai upperi, and with inspiration from that, Gib and I combined forces and made our own side dish with beetroot stems... with wonderful results. Not sure if my photos are doing it justice here, but oh well, here goes:

Beth and Gib's gingery beetroot stem and bean side dish

1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic
Stems from one bunch of fresh baby beats, washed thoroughly, chopped into 5cm lengths
1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 tbsp mustard (I used hot english)
100 g cannelini beans

Saute the onion and garlic together until the onion goes clear
Add the beetroot stems and ginger, cooks for another 3-4 minutes until stems start to soften
Toss through mustard and cannelini beans, cook until beans are warmed through


Although it doesn't really come through in the photo, what I liked about this was the gradient of colours in the dish: the bright pink stems, the peachy coloured onion and finally the pale white beans which don't get much of a chance to absorb the beetroot.

Recipe review

So I've been doing a bit of baking recently, not only for my parents' 30th wedding anniversary celebration which was yesterday, but also just generally over the past few weeks. Unfortunately my camera's batteries ran out yesterday and my camera didn't like its new replacement batteries so I'm waiting on other people's photos to come back to me before I can show you what my mum and I made.

Sweet miso stir fry sauce
From cuisine.com. I just made the sauce for a general vegetable stir fry (I didn't use eggplant) and it was a success in tonight's dinner. I replaced the sugar with honey and added a 2.5 cm piece of ginger, 2 cloves of garlic and chili to taste and it was terrific. I was concerned that it was going to be too salty, which is always my concern whenever I use miso paste, but it was fine once it was tossed through everything. I love using miso paste as a base for stir through sauces as it gives a really nice, almost creamy consistency.

Blueberry and almond slice
I have been dying to try this sanitarium recipe for ages but I find it hard to justify baking slices when there are only a few people around to eat it, so I love big occasions (like yesterday) so I can finally try out all of these cake and slice recipes I've always oggled. This slice is very visually appealing, with the little blueberries poking through. It's moist and there's a great contrast between the almond meal base and the berries that burst in your mouth as you eat it. The recipe was easy to follow and no adjustments for time/temperature had to be made. It came out looking just like the picture on the website. The base was made a day ahead of time and still worked out fine.

From Sanitarium

Rhubarb muffins dusted with cinnamon sugar
Ok, ok, soon I will get over rhubarb recipes. I'm almost through the box of frozen rhubarb bits now. In an effort to try to use up the last of the rhubarb, I made these rhubarb muffins for Gib to take to work. Muffins freeze well and are a convenient snack for hungry men at morning tea time. Myself, I found them a little boring. They were very light and fluffy but a bit too sweet for my liking, and reminded me more of cupcakes with rhubarb than muffins. I prefer my muffins to have a more interesting texture, so maybe I'd make it with part wholemeal flour next time and perhaps add walnuts to the mix. That's just me though. Gib's mum loved them as they were and... well... they didn't last very long with Gib.

Roasted Cauliflower Salad
We've actually made this one a few times over the past month, sometimes making the whole thing, othertimes just roasting up the cauliflower on its own with the spices. It has become a favourite and I foresee it will be made many times in the future. We have learned not to go overboard with the lemon because it gets a bit too zesty with the capers mixed in too. A great side dish, I reckon this would go down well at a summer barbeque.