So tasty! I don't use added meat fats at all. I toast thinly sliced garlic in a bit of coconut or olive oil until golden light brown, remove with slotted spoon on p-towel. soften a sliced onion and a sliced stalk of celery and/or carrot, with the finely chopped beet green stems, 4-5 min, then add the chopped leaves, cover and steam about 8-10 min on low heat... and top with the garlic chips and a squeeze of lemon to the table.
If that does not sound so good as a side dish, just chop and add to soups or stews. It cooks fast like chard so add at the last 10 minutes to any dish.
They often look a bit tired from the grocery. Just remove from the beets when you get home, wash and dry them very well and bag up for the fridge crisper. They should keep fine like most greens and can stay fresh for a week or more.

I've tried to like beet greens. Not even bacon helps them much. And the oxalic acid in them makes my teeth feel weird. Same thing with chard. Least ways, I think it's the oxalic acid. So I've given up on them and decided to think about what great compost they make. :)

A friend gave us a 35 gallon bag of mixed greens.

I'm steaming & freezing them. This winter I will pull out a good handful at a time to go in my fruit & greens shake.

Do I love the taste? No, but I love what they do for my health.

Betty

Beet greens are FANTASTIC roasted with olive oil and kosher salt. Like people do with kale lately, you know? A wonderful snack.

Substitute them for any kind of greens in almost any recipe. I have learned -- in great part here -- that I can use beet greens, and just about any kid of miscellaneous green on hand, including turnip, radish, horseradish, and other things people throw away, in lots of soups, and in sautes -- like with sausage (or soy sausage, if it's a dairy meal), beans, tomatoes, and maybe pasta or cheese. Yum!!!

Last night I made a Chinese fish & sour cabbage soup, to try to (a) come close to replicating a dish we adored at a now-closed restaurant and (b) use up some of the results of my unsuccessful kim chi experiment (just tastes super salty, not sour). I had googled around for recipes and patched one together I thought would work, but when I got home and started to cook, I noticed it called for a lot of spinach, which I hadn't bought and which I did think it needed. Nothing in the fridge. So I went out to see what was left in the garden. I came in with some scrawny kale and arugula and a few of the smaller horseradish leaves. It was fine. So glad I learned to do this and got my confidence. But beet greens would have been even better.

With any greens, the fresher, the better. So if you aren't going to use them soon, just make the yummy snack above.

sleevendog, that sounds delicious, I'm going to try tht with kale as my beet g eens are all gone, thanks. As you mentioned, they cook fast, which is a bonus for me when I want something green on my plate in a hurry.

gellchom, Elery and I made kimchi but it didn't taste sour or salty. It just tasted HOT! I just planted horseradish this year, next year I'll remember to try some of the leaves.

Betty,my daughter likes greens in a smoothie with strawberry and banana. She loves greens, though.

Here's the latest recipe I used, in an effort to get the grandkids to eat greens. Didn't work, but the recipe isn't bad, although I thought it was too greasy. So, I made it again without the bacon at all, and just kept the sweet and sour thing going. It was still a bit sweet, so I think I'd cut that down a bit too.

Sweet and Sour Greens

Ingredients

6 slices bacon, chopped
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup vinegar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 1/2 pounds fresh collard greens, tough stems removed and leaves torn into bite-size pieces

8 servings

Cook the bacon in a large Dutch oven over medium heat until browned and crisp, about 8 minutes, stirring often. Transfer bacon pieces into a bowl with a slotted spoon, leaving the drippings in the pan.
Stir water, vinegar, sugar, salt, and black pepper into the bacon drippings until the sugar has dissolved; bring the mixture to a boil. Place collards into the boiling mixture, and stir to mix well. Cover the Dutch oven, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook until the greens are tender, 30 to 45 minutes. Drizzle in a little more water or vinegar if greens become too dry.
Spoon greens into a serving dish, and sprinkle with the cooked bacon pieces.

Annie

The texture may be more pleasing if you slice the greens into thin strips before cooking.

Stack several washed leaves, roll into a cylinder, cut the cylinder into 1/4" sections, they will unroll into thin chiffon strips, hence the term for this cut, "chiffonade". Much faster to do than to describe.

Then quickly fry in oil or butter or fat (duck fat!) with salt. Or toss in oil and salt and roast until crisp.

Make a pie by cooking them with garlic and seasoning, add some sliced cooked waxy potatoes and a load of crumbled feta cheese and a beaten egg. Bake into a crisp pie with the pastry of your choice.

Personally, I prefer beet greens (and Swiss chard) over spinach.
I use them in any and all the ways I would use spinach.
Unfortunately, it's not often that I can get them.

Rusty

Annie,

My daily shake makes a blender full. I drink 1/2 in the morning & 1/2 in the evening. It is so filling I feel like I've eaten a meal.

2 bananas(peeled), 2 oranges(peeled), 1 apple,1 large stalk of celery, 1 large carrot, 1/2 lemon(peeled), 1 cucumber, sometimes I throw in some pieces of honeydew or a few dates, always a scoop of vitamin powder, a few cherry tomatoes if I have any, sometimes blueberries or strawberries. Add some water & start blending. I add whatever greens I have through the hole in the blender top while blending.
My favorite greens mix is a handful of spinach, some fresh kale & lots of curly mustard leaves for the bite it gives. If I have local honey I will add 2 teaspoons of that to help with my allergies. Yummy & very healthful!

I've used all kinds of combinations depending on what I can find. This has REALLY helped me in recovering from Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. It gives me the energy to keep putting one foot in front of the other, most days.

Betty

I make fall soup with beet greens. I invented this vegan recipe.

Saute in olive oil:
1 med. onion of your soup choice. I like to use a red onion for the color, but you can use a white or yellow one. If it is a big onion, then only use half of it or 1/3 depending on the size and how "oniony" you like your soup.

Dice up the red stems and add them to the saute. Add 1 heaping tsp. of garlic, more or less to your taste.
When everything has caramelized, add the chopped beet greens to the saute and maybe a splash of veg. broth or chicken broth if you don't do vegetable broth. Saute until greens are wilted.

Add a can of cannellini beans and about 1 tsp. of italian seasoning of your choice. I use Mrs. Dash or Penzeys. Just barely cover this all with vegetable or chicken broth. Add a bay leaf and simmer until flavors are melded and greens are cooked.

Add a 10 oz. square of frozen butternut squash puree, or roast your own butternut squash and puree it. Frankly, this soup is better and easier with the frozen puree. I microwave the squash until it is thawed before adding. Add enough more broth to make it to the consistency you like for soup. It should be somewhat thick. Add salt and pepper to taste. Flavor with some dry or table white wine or a splash of balsamic if you prefer. Go light on this because you could wreck it if you use too much. You want a savory broth. You can add more of any of the seasonings to your taste. Simmer for 10 or so minutes until all flavors are melded.

Sprinkle with parmesean before serving. This soup is great served with toasted corn tortilla strips or baked corn tortillas, crumbled up and added on top.

You can add some sauteed mushrooms to the soup if you want a little more stuff in it. It is good as is though. You could also add some chicken or turkey italian sausage and omit the parmesean for kosher.

That sounds great, LPink, and I'm sooooo happy to see you back!

Sally

Betty, I'm glad you're feeling better. I'm not a fan of smoothies but both my daughters are, so I'm passing this on. Amanda has a problem with diverticulitis and she tries to keep the fiber level up without causing digestive problems, maybe this would work.

L, I'm glad to see you back too. Lots of vegetable threads to draw you back in!

Annie

I drink beets and beet tops (the greens but some are red and/or other colors). I use a low-speed juicer to make V7 (no tomato) of garden produce: beets (root and top), chard (leaf and stem), carrot, celery (leaves in), parsley (stems in), collard (leaf and stem), peppers, kale... deeelicious and quite sweet (all parts of the beet).

Thank you all for the help. I made the recipe Sleeven suggested and it came out great. What is different than what I was doing before is mainly covering to steam after adding the greens rather than sauteing them. I like how tender they came out without being overcooked.

Picky DH didn't seemed thrilled with them, though.

I may try a sweet and sour thing with the kale I have. I like sweet and sour, but I'll alter it from the recipe that Annie posted. 1/2 a cup of sugar sounds like a lot. I'm thinking maybe cranberries for the sour and maybe some maple syrup for the sweet. I'll see whether I'm brave enough to wing that tonight - my last chance to cook before leaving on a 2 week business trip.

I bought some beets at the farmers' market in Mar Vista today, and all of them had greens on them. I was wondering whether the greens were edible, and I am happy to find here that they are.

It was rather warm here today - 82° while I was at the market. I also bought oysters and red snapper, and we are grilling those this evening, but the beets are for tomorrow. Today was an especially good day for grilling.

Had some friends from LA Westchester visiting me, Westchester, NY. They just left. Temperature here is near zero F. They will be so happy back to 82F.

I will be starting beet seeds this week in my new greenhouse . Multi-color beets (Rainbow collection). I enjoy beet greens.

dcarch

At Hannukah I made borscht with beet greens. Was some of the best I ever made. I like my borscht hot, with some tomato and a bit of vinegar to give it some tang, (not too much!) and then served with a dollop of sour cream.

I was wondering whether the greens were edible, and I am happy to find here that they are.

They're the best part! Chard is really a form of beet that doesn't develop a big root, same way seven-top turnips are only grown for the leaves.

If I find beets with greens attached, I love to roast the beets, chop them up, then sauté the greens and serve them together.

My local market sells with the tops, both yellow and red beets. Also the loose bins without.

For the gardener, I grow 'tall top'. For the greens. I sow rather close in a 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 ft bed in one of the greens/salad beds. Greens all summer, then baby beets in the Fall.

They freeze nicely as well as all greens for winter soups. I 'chiffonade' and pack into 1/2 pint containers topped with stock or hot water. Quick soup. I can pull out a pint of pure stock, bone, veg or chicken, then a protein pint like chicken/grain, ham/white bean, etc. and a 1/2 pint greens. Any combination. I label them #1, 2, and 3 for my parents freezer. #1 frozen stock goes in the pan till thawed and simmering, then #2 till simmering, then the greens, #3. Nothing gets overcooked. Soup 'kits'.

Thanks for the idea about freezing some of them. I also bought a bunch of spinach at the farmers' market, as well as cauliflower and lettuces, and so I really do not need many more greens right now. I bought a huge amount of spinach because it was in bulk and sold by the pound, which made it fairly cheap.

I've never cooked beets before, but I assume that they will keep a bit longer than the greens, and so I will do something with the greens before I cook the beets. I need to cook the cauliflower first.

My favorite beet greens are when they are young and have beets about the size of golf balls attached....I steam them all together and add some vinegar...
also beets are a good addition to a baby green garden mix. Just sow romaine, chard, Thompson's seedless, beets and spinach and snip some when it gets about 6 inches tall....fabulous salads!

I like pan frying them in a little butter with garlic, tarragon, and red wine vinegar - but not too much vinegar.

Another option, instead of pork, try smoked turkey as a substitute.

Thompson's seedless

Do you mean grapes, Linda?

The beets I bought are fairly small, and so I think I'll get more from the greens than from the beets. I also have a large bag of walnuts that I bought in bulk at the Middle Eastern market that I go to, and I thought they would be good with the beets, which is why I bought the beets. I had a salad at Joe's Restaurant in Venice on my birthday with Roccogurl (aka Fatlester) when she was in L.A. visiting her relatives, Feb 2004:

How lucky for me that this old string popped up again just when I had bought beets and radishes and was sad because I had no plans for the greens. I used Sleevendog’s recipe, using greens from three beets and two bunches of radishes and a whole lemon and four or five garlic cloves. Delicious!

Sleevendog, freezing those "soup kits" is a really good idea, I wish I'd have thought of that. Instead, I'll borrow the idea from you. Thanks!

Lars, I love beets, they are one of my favorite vegetables, and you are right, they keep well. I've had beets in the crisper drawer for a couple of weeks and they were still fine.

dcarch a new greenhouse? Oh geez, I'm jealous. I'm still waffling between a hoop house and a green house.....

Another use for greens of all types is to make dip. I use a spinach dip recipe or the ubiquitous "spinach/artichoke" dip recipe, but use whatever greens I have on hand, whether it's beet greens, kale, collards, whatever. They all work well in dip.

Annie

Young fresh beet greens can be wonderful in salads and sandwiches.

You can have regular supply of beet greens by growing beets in water or in pots near your sunny window.

dcarch

Wow, that greenhouse is really cool! Is that a calamondin in the pic in your previous post?

Perfect size space. Lots of room. I grow the ends of organic celery in water. One last year I moved to a deck pot in the Spring and I had a huge mound of tender celery leaves and stalks all summer.

2nd year keeping micro greens going all Winter. Last nights roasted garlic/leek soup had two full fresh cups of daikon radish greens into the blender with the broth and veg. Pea shoot salad with steak.

Your greenhouse reminds me of Curtis Stone's. His is for business production but it has been inspiration for mine to be built hopefully this Spring. And where I have gathered info for my micro greens. I grew in 1010 trays all Fall and now have switched to 5x7 for continuous greens and herbs. Sowed five new trays last night.

His operation , HERE

My mini version of his method. A mixed salad greens, three varieties of peas, 2 sunflower shoots, chard/beet greens, and a mixed mustard.

"----- His is for business production but it has been inspiration for mine to be built hopefully this Spring-----"

You are the "Queen of Micro Green" :-)

My green house was built very cheap. Not-so-perfect lumber from HD at 70% discount. 1/4$$ remnant UV greenhouse plastic film from Farmtek.

dcarch.