On the good ol' Serious Eats, I asked a question: What are the foods you've taught yourself to like? And to my surprise, many people replied beets. Beets! The candy of the Earth, the ruby of root vegetables. The world is full of surprises.
Beets must be one of the most divisive foods. Here you have plenty of people who must force themselves to eat beets, and then you have a veritable epidemic of roasted beet salads in restaurants across the country. (Seriously, move on.) The beet is both misunderstood and over-rated. The world is complex.
So this recipe makes beets easy eating for the wary, and familiar to all the people who have kept beet salad on the menu for the past 10 years. The beet juice is blended with strawberries for some fruity and sweet auto-tune. The bananas are there for body and richness. The yogurt and walnuts are beet's familiar sidekicks. The pool of extra beet juice is like that extra bit of hot fudge lingering at the end of the sundae. But here, the finish is virtuous and cleansing, a reminder of the Earth.
RECIPE: Boil beets until cooked and use them for something else. Reserve the water in which it was cooked and refrigerate. Vitamix 1/2 cup frozen banana, 1/2 cup frozen strawberries, and 1/4 cup of chilled beet juice. Serve with walnuts, a drizzle of kefir, and a pool of extra beet juice. Serves 1.