Beet Greens

Well, here I am singing the praises of fresh lovely beets, and then I went and threw away the beet greens last time we had them.  This time, we ate the delicious beet greens.  They taste a lot like Swiss chard and can be prepared in much the same way.  Some people discard the tougher stalk portion on the beet greens, but we like eating these.  They just have to be thrown in the pan a little earlier and cooked a bit longer.  The stalks are a lovely shade of purple red.

We sauteed the greens in olive oil with some onion, garlic, salt and pepper, and then a dash of balsamic vinegar at the end.  These were a great addition to our meal of polenta with marinara sauce and sauteed broccolini. 

We got the polenta at Trader Joe's.  It comes in a little log that you can slice up and then pan fry in a little olive oil.  Of course, you can just make your own polenta easily with corn meal, too.

Husband and I were talking the other day about how our new diet is leading us to experiment in new ways with food.  We certainly are eating a much wider variety of vegetables than we did before, and finding healthy substitutes for many old standbys.  It is also making us look harder at nutrition labels and thinking more about where our food comes from.and the choices we make in what we eat.