Roasted Beets and Smoky Chutney

Our CSA baskets have featured beets these past couple weeks. Though I've definitely eaten my fair share of beets before (remember BEET-za or Dwight's Apple-Beet Muffins?!?!), I had never prepared them at home. We either had them out, at a friend's house, or -- not-as glamorously -- out of a can.

A quick Google search brought me to Alanna's tutorial on how to roast beets in a dutch oven. I followed it exactly (well, I cut my stems too short, but it wasn't an issue).

The result: Beets + dutch oven + time = YUM! (and magenta-colored fingers)

And since I've not used beets in cooking for a while, I didn't want to just eat them roasted. Though, they taste amazing that way, and my friend Chris says they're great quartered with a bit of olive oil, garlic, salt, and rosemary.

I had other plans. Chutney. Not just any chutney, though. Paul Mercurio's Smoky Beet Chutney (Cooking with Beer -- PDF document)

(((I am adding the original recipe to this post because many people have reported to me that they are getting an error trying to open the PDF document I found.)))

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh beet roots, scrubbed and tops removed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 yellow onion, finely chopped (1 cup)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
Juice of one fresh orange
2 fresh bay leaves
1 cup porter ale
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon (or to taste) red pepper flakes or diced chiles
1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Method:

Preheat oven to 400F. Wrap beets in foil and place in a baking dish. Bake in oven for 1 hour. Set aside to cool slightly. Using disposable gloves to avoid staining your hands, remove the skins and tough stem ends and chop the beets very fine.

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat and fry onion until soft. Add garlic, apple cider vinegar, orange juice, bay leaves, porter, brown sugar, salt and chiles. Simmer 10 minutes. Stir in chopped beets and smoked paprika. Reduce heat to medium. Simmer 45 minutes or until the mixture thickens slightly. Remove bay leaves. Spoon the hot chutney into sterilized 8 oz. jars.


I guess that recipe is more fall-appropriate (in my search, I discovered there's a general consensus that beet chutney goes best with Thanksgiving). Still, the combination of beets, onions, beer, smoked paprika, and orange couldn't have pared better with brie, (The NEW 5-minute) naan, and almonds.

Have you roasted beets at home? What's your favorite way to use them? Just leave a comment or email us at neverhomemaker [at] gmail [dot] com.

PS: HAPPY 4TH of JULY, my fellow Americans!


And if you've got a baby, you might be interested to read how to dropped Ada's 2AM/3AM feed on Writing Chapter Three. I was worried the post would jinx us out of the great sleep we've been getting. And -- sadly -- that's exactly what happened last night!

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