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.

Tagged: beet greens, beet root, brown rice, garlic, onion, red wine vinegar