The Veg Letters #03

Beetroot

I bought some lovely beetroot from Stroud Farmers Market at the weekend. (That’s also where I get my mushrooms. And I picked up some cavalo nero, which I still need to use.) The stall holder asked if I wanted the tops cut off. They looked amazing – not young, but in really good condition – so I said, no I’d like to keep them. The bunch was so huge that I struggled to find somewhere to store them, but managed to perch them on top of the vegetable baskets beside the fridge, where the leaves poked out and attacked people as they passed.

The leaves started to look less amazing by the very next day (I have a feeling they would do better in the fridge), so I figured I’d better use them pretty quick. So I cut them off, cleaned them up, shredded them and mixed them with garlic, chilli and a bit of olive oil and roasted them for about 15 minutes and ate them with our Sunday meal (a plant-based gratin dauphinois with tamarind mushroom ‘gravy’, the beet leaves and some – unnecessary, but served for one daughter who was not going to eat the other elements of the meal – sweet potato fries and (Richmond meat-free) sausages. They were really nice. They had a spinachy taste, but with an added sweetness and hint of earthy beetroot flavour.

I will definitely be getting some again. (I have a feeling I’ll be ending up planning my week’s meals based on what treasures I pick up at the farmers market on a Saturday morning. Which is how we used to cook when our eldest was little. But life and parenting meant farmers market trips got less frequent and instead we relied on the online supermarkets.)

I used the rest of the beets (except I didn’t think to use the stems, and am very annoyed with myself about that – next time, I’ll know better and roast or stir-fry them too, unless the beetroot is super young, in which case they’ll go in a salad) on Monday for a delicious soup. Not a borscht, which I will maybe try next time I get some. But a puréed soup made from beets (there were four large long beets in this bunch), potatoes (I used four medium potatoes), a tin of coconut milk, garlic, chilli, miso paste, a (Kallo) vegetable stock cube and about 400 ml of water – oh and probably about two tablespoons of (extra virgin) olive oil. Sautéed the beetroot, potatoes, garlic and chilli for about 10 minutes before adding the liquids and then just simmered away for about 45 minutes, before whizzing up with my hand-held stick blender (such a useful kitchen tool, especially at this time of year!). And I baked some rolls to go with it. It was so good. Served two of us on the night and then I had it for lunch and dinner the next day.

Here’s an image that Chris thought looked really good. This is actually all the drawn and hand-lettered elements for today’s Veg Letter, before they were compiled together into the printable fact sheet. I agree it looks kind of cool. And is a bit of a call back to my earlier style, maybe 8 or 10 years ago, where I would draw and write on paper with dip pen and ink and then colour in Photoshop with various textures (some made by me and some using the various brushes and textures in Photoshop). Maybe I’ll share some of that older work with you another day – I am sure I have some foodie illustrations in that style.

And here’s the PDF version…

Veg Letters 03 Beetroot

4.49MB ∙ PDF file

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I hope you enjoyed this month’s Veg Letter.