Conquering Daemons: Beets Revisited

After my traumatic experience with beets the first time I ate them, I decided I had to give beets a second chance. While they were OK tasting the first time I tried to use them in a dish, they did not seem anything special too me and I would have been perfectly happy never eating them again. By not ever eating beet again,  I would not have to worry about staining my kitchen red with the messy beet-juice and I would not suffer beet’s scary side effects.

BUT …I needed to prove that I could concur this root. I HAD to prove to myself that I could beat beets into something I would want to eat. I wanted to be able to brag about my kitchen skills of turning something mundane into a meal that left you craving more.

So…Last night I rolled up me sleeves (metaphorically and physically) and attacked the juicy red roots with a new sense of energy and a clear goal in mind.  I knew I could win the battle with beets and make them truly tasty.

and guess what…I defeated those damn beets; and the Fed Up Kitchen gained much honor and glory!

I knew I could make beets meet my high taste standards…I just had to know how to cook them and more importantly, I needed to know what to pair them with. It may not look pretty, but this brussels sprout-beet-feta pizza was one of the best and most unique dishes I have made in a while. Try getting Domino’s to make you one of these beauties.

Fed Up fans know I like my flatbread pizza, so this of course was the meal chosen to help me make beets taste good. The beets were first cubed up and roasted for a good long time, which goth them nice and sweet. Then they were added on a flatbread that was also had cubes of cream cheese, some beet greens, brussels sprouts, feta cheese, grilled chicken, and roasted garlic along with some rosemary and PLENTY sweet/spicy seasoning. I finished off the whole thing with toasted pine nuts.

Roasting the beets in small cubes made them tender and very sweet. This sweetness went great with the feta cheese.   The roasted brussels spouts and pine nuts gave the dish a nice nutty flavor which worked well with the other ingredients. And the texture from the cream cheese was a nice addition. This combination of ingredients created a perfect flavor combo of salty-sweet-nutty that also was pretty damn healthy too. This is definitely something that Fed Up kitchen will create in the future.

The conflict left my hands crimson, and the kitchen  battlefield is forever stained red from last night’s actions.  But I conquered my daemons and victoriously proved that beets can be good eats (even if they do make you pee red the next day).