the first beets from my garden and a lovely salad!

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     Back in January, I put in my 2022 garden here in Phoenix.  I have a grow box, a few things in the ground out of the grow box, and some containers.  It seemed like I waited forever for the seeds to germinate, but they finally did.  The beets I planted were the first things to come up.  

      Did I say beets?  I told you in this post about how I don't really love to eat beets, but I found ways to include them in my diet because they are so good for you!  The great thing about beets is that you can eat the entire plant!  Even before you can harvest the beet root, you can cut off some of the leaves to include in your salads or other dishes where you would use healthy greens.  I even used some beet leaves as the lettuce in BLTs already this year!  (Check the aforementioned post for some recipes!)

      Well, today, I was out watering the garden and checking it over when I saw the first shoulders of some beets pushing above the soil!  I was so excited!  I also noticed that there were 2 of them that were kind of close together crowding each other out.  I made the decision to harvest them.  They are a beautiful variety of golden/orange beet and I was over the moon about bringing them in and using them in our dinner salad today! 

Obviously, these could have stayed in the ground a little longer, but when they are small like this, they are tender and sweet.

     I certainly wasn't going to let any of these beauties go to waste.  I decided to make a salad with the beet greens, baby spinach from my garden, green onions that I grow on my window sill, the beets, cut into shoestrings and marinated, and a chopped tomato, the only thing that wasn't from my garden. (But, my tomatoes are flowering as I speak!)

Baby spinach growing in my front flower bed!

Onions in my window

​Preparing the Beet Root:

      To prepare the beets, I simply removed the greens about 1/2 an inch above the root and boiled the beet roots until they were fairly soft, in salted water.  The time to do this will vary depending on the size of your beets.  
       After the beets come out of the water, the outer skin will slip right off.  
       Next, I sliced them into shoestring slices and marinated them in Italian dressing, spiked with a little red wine vinegar.  
      

Preparing the Greens:

      Just wash the beet tops as you would spinach.  I removed the stems and tore the tops into bite size pieces and put them in my salad bowl.  
       Next, I went out and harvested as much baby spinach as I thought I would need to mix with the beet tops and washed them and added them to the bowl.
         I decided that the green onions would be a nice addition, so I snipped a few stems from those and washed them.  Then, I chopped them up into the salad.

     When the greens were all in the bowl, I gave them a toss.  See how great they look! I am a proud grower of this salad! 

This photo may have been taken before I added the onions.

       Now to add color, I diced up a tomato.  I tossed it into the salad and then finally I added the beets.  I didn't pour the marinade over the salad.  That may have been good, but I decided to allow my family to choose their own dressing instead.  I'm really glad I marinated the beets though, they tasted so good, not pickled, but sweet and flavorful and not like dirt! 

Doesn't that look appetizing? And I grew almost all of it!

     This salad was the perfect accompaniment to our broiled salmon at dinner tonight.  I was in heaven!  My linger covid tastebuds barely bothered me at all!  

     How are your gardens doing this year?  I am having so much fun with mine!  If you don't live in Phoenix, you may just be thinking about putting yours in.  I hope you will give beets a try! 
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​Other posts like this that you may enjoy:

• Spinach Salads that Make the Meal
• An Inexpensive Fairy Garden for my Grandkids
• Wood Burned Garden Markers