Beets and Your Health
You say you don’t like beets, but perhaps you just haven’t tried the right recipe for them! If you planted them in your garden in the spring they might be popping up now. If you are planting them now, look for a fall harvest. Or, if you get them in the food market, try the bags of cooked, peeled beets in beet juice. They will last for weeks on a shelf, refrigerate if opened, and they are great for your health!
Regardless of how you get your beets, for eye, brain, and heart health, it’s really important to include them in your diet. They are full of lutein and zeaxanthin, which play such an important role in eye health, preventing aging macular degeneration, and simply keeping your eyes healthy. But that’s only one advantage.
Because of all the nitrates in beets, they help relax dilated blood vessels, which certainly improves circulation and lowers blood pressure. Which also makes them great for heart health, even if they did not also contain betaine and folate, which they do. It’s that same nitrate which the body converts to nitric oxide which is great for brain health, simply since it allows more blood to flow up there.
Not sure of this one, but they say beet juice mixed with vinegar and left on your head overnight even clears dandruff if that’s a problem. Might be difficult to get the red out when shampooing.
So considering all the Vitamin, A, B1, B2, B6 and C, combined with huge supplies of folic acid, manganese, sodium, potassium iron, calcium, copper and phosphorus in a single beet, it stands to reason they’re one of the best vegetables around for you health.
Try ‘em. You’ll like ‘em!
Pickled Beets
Easy, will keep in refrigerator for weeks.
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, quartered
1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
2 bay leaves
2 whole cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons black peppercorns
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 pounds medium red beets, peeled and cut into 2-by-1/2-inch sticks
Directions
In a saucepan, bring the vinegar mixture, sugar, onion, garlic, mustard seeds, bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns, thyme and oregano to a boil. If using fresh uncooked beete, peel and place in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the beets until crisp-tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and transfer to a heatproof bowl. If using cooked, canned or packaged pre-cooked beets, simply put in heatproof bowl. Pour the hot liquid over the beets and let stand at room temperature for 4 hours or refrigerate overnight. Drain the beets, transfer to a bowl and serve. (Or leave in liquid, cover well and refrigerate.
Spinach Salad with Beets
3-4 small beets
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
/2 small red onion, very thinly sliced
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3 tangerines
1 large red grapefruit
1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Black Pepper
3/4 pound curly leaf spinach (12 cups), stemmed and torn into bite-size pieces
- Preheat the oven to 350°. Put the beets in a medium baking dish. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and rub to coat the beets. Cover with foil and bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the beets are tender. When the beets are cool enough to handle, peel and quarter them. Skip this step if using pre-cooked and peeled beets.
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl, cover onion slices with vinegar. Add a pinch of salt and mix well. Let stand for about 1 hour.
- Peel tangerines and grapefruit, removing all the white pith. Working over a bowl, cut in between the membranes to release the sections.
- In a small bowl, whisk the mustard with 3 tablespoons vinegar from the onion slices. Whisk in 1/4 cup of olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Put the spinach in a large bowl. Drain the onion slices and add to the spinach along with the tangerine, grapefruit and beets. Drizzle the mustard dressing over the salad and toss well. Serve right away.
Beet and avocado salad
4 medium beets (about 1/2 pound each),
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for rubbing
1/2 cup water
Salt and ground white pepper
1/3 cup finely chopped sweet Spanish or white onion
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 cup grape seed oil or other mild vegetable oil
1 avocado, scooped out of skin, sliced.
- Preheat the oven to 350°. In a small baking dish, rub the beets with olive oil. Add the water and season with salt and white pepper. Cover tightly with foil and roast for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, or until tender when pierced with a knife. Let cool, then peel the beets and cut them into 3/4-inch pieces. Transfer to a large bowl. Or use pre-cooked, pre-peeled beets.
- In a blender, combine chopped onion with vinegar, lemon juice, mustard and honey. Season with salt and pepper and blend until smooth. With the machine on, add the grape seed oil and 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a steady stream.
- Add avocado to beets. Pour the onion dressing on top and toss gently to combine. Season the salad with salt and pepper and serve.
Want more Recipes that are good for eye or just overall Health? Click HERE
