Roasted beets and beet greens with rice – sounds interesting. I came across this recipe a while ago (probably a year or more) in New York Times website. When I first saw this recipe I was a bit hesitant since I did not know how it would turn out and never made an attempt to make it. So over the weekend I was planning what to cook for the week and came across this recipe again and thought to give it a try. I drove all the way to a farmers market where they sell really fresh bunch beets with fresh greens. I modified the original recipe to adjust for some ingredients which I did not have. After all the twists and turns from the original recipe, this came out really good with a sweet taste from the beets and sour taste from the red wine vinegar.
I know a lot of people throw away the beet leaves. But these leaves are packed with vitamins and minerals. You can find another recipe for beet leaves I have posted a while ago at – Beet Leaves Fry
Ingredients:
- 1 cup brown rice (you can buy the rice packets which has other whole grains as well)
- 2 cups water
- 2 medium red beets
- 1 small yellow beets
- cooking spray
- 1 bunch beet greens and stems
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- 1 small onion thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1-2 red radish
Method:
- Add rice and water to a saucepan and bring to a rolling boil. Reduce heat to low and cook for about 20 minutes or until almost water is absorbed. Set aside covered
- Preheat oven to 425 F. Spray cooking spray to a cookie sheet
- Peel beets and chop them into thin 1 inch cubes. Spread them on the cookie sheet in a single layer and spray a little bit oil over them.
- Roast beets for about 15-20 minutes. Once roasted, red beets will become a little darker in color and will shrink. Yellow beets will retain their color but shrink as well.
- Add cooking oil to a skillet and add sliced onion and saute until they are translucent. Now add chopped garlic, beet stems and the red wine vinegar and saute for another 2-3 minutes
- Add beet greens to the skillet and lower the flame and saute for only one minute since these leaves are very soft.
- Add cooked rice and mix well. Sprinkle a little water and cover and cook for a minute or two stirring frequently. Turn off flame and let stand covered for about 10 minutes. This will let rice absorb the flavor of beets and the vinegar
- Thinly slice red radishes diagonally. Add a little oil (or cooking spray) to a skillet and add sliced radishes and fry for 30 seconds on each side.
- Garnish pulav with radishes.
Yields: 2 main dishes
Source: Adapted and heavily modified from New York Times
Variations: Roasted tofu can be added to the pulav since tofu does not have a distinct flavor and will not spoil the flavor of this pulav.
