[wighty]

I'm trying to add more beetroot to my diet  (although I love it anyway) as a way to reduce my blood pressure.  It's a 'natural' way to do it according to reports.  How many beetroot sandwiches, roast beetroot as a veg is it going to take?  I won't comment on the daily (as my husband calls it ) toxic waste!

[Madame Cholet]

I like the idea  of baked beetroot with a jacket potato in the winter.  ummmmmmmmm

[compostqueen]

I think roasting does make them naturally sweeter, and I like to add a sprig of thyme to the tray

I just wondered whether though if roasting would improve the flavour of a poor tasting beetroot.  I'll try it with my chioggias and goldens as I'm not that keen on them at first tasting

[Madame Cholet]

I usually parboil roots before roasting, ie swede, parsnips ect could i treat beetroot the same.

[Livinhope]

I've lived a sheltered life  :blink: never roasted beetroot in the oven.  How do you eat it, meaning would you put it with a roast, do you put vinegar on it, please give me some ideas, I love beetroot and have high blood pressure as well, so I could be on a winner.

[Wheelchair Gardener]

I've lived a sheltered life  :blink: never roasted beetroot in the oven.  How do you eat it, meaning would you put it with a roast, do you put vinegar on it, please give me some ideas, I love beetroot and have high blood pressure as well, so I could be on a winner.

We eat roasted beetroot quite often and all we have ever done is cut off the leaves, given them a good scrub to get them clean and popped them in the oven for about 40 minutes on gas 5 (ish), we eat it with other roast veg, it goes well with anything.
I have pickled some for the first time this year (still needs a few weeks though).  I used this recipe:

http://vegbox-recipes.co.uk/recipes/beetroot-recipe-5.php

[Livinhope]

I'll give the roast beetroot a try, small quantity at first so if I don't like it I won't waste too much.

[Trillium]

I first tried roasted beetroots a few years back when I watched an episode of Fork to fork with Monty Don. Only difference there was they roasted the cleaned beets with big dollops of double cream on top. Very tasty but the calories were killing me 

As for pickling with vinegar, I use only the regular 5% but I'll add extra water and sugar to the liquid so my eyeballs don't pop out on tasting them. In fact, I taste the liquid first before I add to the veg so I know I'll like my results. Hate to waste everything by finding it's too sour. Or too sweet.

[Wild Pony]

Stir fried beetroot done with butter and either golden syrup/maple syrup or honey, even brown sugar, depends on the larder, lololol had it last night with turnip and mushrooms on basmati rice........scrummy

[Madame Cholet]

I'm eating so much at the moment that I'm just adding them to the pot of vinager in the fridge each time i empty it. how man times can I reuse it.

[katymay]

Hi. Just tasted beetroot I pickled couple of weeks ago. First time pickling. Its really sharp. Anything I can do to correct it.?

[Livinhope]

I have learnt over the years that the addition of 'sugar to taste' is a good idea when pickling anything, especially if you don't like sharp tastes, so when you've boiled the vinegar add sugar by degrees, keep tasting until you reach the level of what suits you.

[Spana]

Hi. Just tasted beetroot I pickled couple of weeks ago. First time pickling. Its really sharp. Anything I can do to correct it.?

Try putting it in a sieve and rinsing under kitchen tap.  Then pat dry on kitchen roll, might be worth a try

[Jonajo]

I have load of jars of pickled beetroot (and still many beetroot to pull from the ground which I will roast and turn into spiced soup later),

But the pickling recipe I use that works best for me is to 2 litres of cider vinegar I mix about 10 oz of sugar (demerera works great, but caster or granulated are fine too - or a mixture; it doesn't really matter as it is the sweetness that works magic with the vinegar). You can, of course, increase or decrease the sugar content. And either way this is infinitely more yummy than the vile malt vinegar that murders the flavour of the beetroot etc...

I then add a tablespoon of peppercorns and a tsp of whole cloves, and a finely chopped chilli (seeds and all) and bring everything to the boil for a few mins then remove from heat.

And then I simply pour it over the sliced beetroot that are in sterilised jars (or leave whole if they are small).

I have done variations ie) cooked the beetroot first in over for about 50 mins, used white wine vinegar and even a 50-50 mix of balsamic and cider vinegar, added more chillies or even no chilli.

I use a very similar vinegar recipe for shallots too (im fact I have just bottled up a load of jars of shallots this morning).

The taste test for me  - given the months to wait to really taste the picked veg - is to try a spoonful of the vinegar mix before bottling up: if it is too harsh, I add more sugar. If it it too sweet, I add more vinegar. It is easily possible to get a lovely flavoured vinegar at this stage immediately prior to bottling.

[pottyaboutgrowing]

I've lived a sheltered life  :blink: never roasted beetroot in the oven.  How do you eat it, meaning would you put it with a roast, do you put vinegar on it, please give me some ideas, I love beetroot and have high blood pressure as well, so I could be on a winner.

Hi.. Beets in the oven are divine, I tend to roast mine with a little balsamic vinegar over them and a splash of olive oil too. This can be done to any veg.. I tend to mix my roast veggies together in the same pan and cook this way. We had them for dinner last night and they are soo tasty. Also for those of you that suffer with hight blood pressure juicing is another good way of getting the benefits from these little veg. I made veggie juice a couple of days ago as we had rather a glut of stuff so I juiced a lot of it, as there is only so much you can eat and freeze. Also RAW and grated on salad is nice to and more beneficial as the goodness is still in the beets. Garlic is another good way to reduce BP  Hope this has helped. :happy:

BTW forgot to mention to all that find the vinegar too strong cooled boiled water is a good way of diluting it. Try diluting by a quarter; 3/4 vinegar to 1//4 cooled boiled water.