What's for Dinner? Roasted Beets

So after my amazing recovery from the brink of death, I found a whole refrigerator filled with veggies that needed to be used up. I had a plan when I bought the veggies, but do you think the Phlegm Faery cared? Nope. Not one bit.

Scoob had to throw out the arugula I bought to go with these roasted beets, but I picked up some spinach while we were in Apex on Sunday. And I had to sort through a couple bunches of kale I'd bought because some of the leaves in the center of the bunches were starting to turn. But other than that, there weren't many casualties.

Oven roasted beets with goat cheese (and assorted other veggies).

Oven Roasted Beets with Balsamic and Goat Cheese

Prep time: 10 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

6 beets

3 cloves of garlic, whole and peeled

3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

ground rosemary, about ½ tsp

ground thyme, about ½ tsp

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup water

spinach

goat cheese

balsamic vinegar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Clean the dirt from the beets and trim the ends. The skin will slide off after they've roasted, so there's no need to peel them.


2. Place the beets in a baking dish along with the whole cloves of garlic. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper. Make sure the beets get coated with the oil and spices.


3. Add 1 cup of water to the baking dish and cover tightly with foil. Roast in the oven for 45 minutes, or until beets are tender with a fork.


4. Let the beets cool a bit so you can handle them. Gently squeeze the beet to break the skin and peel it off, then slice.


5. Put the spinach on a plate, add the sliced beets, a couple tablespoons of goat cheese, and drizzle with balsamic. Any leftover liquid in the baking dish can also be cooled and drizzled over the plate.

I've eaten versions of this several times and loved it, but this was the first time I tried to make it myself. Since I had so many other veggies to use up I also roughly chopped a couple carrots and a turnip (or maybe it was a rutabaga, I dunno) I'd had in the fridge along with the beets. I don't recommend the turnip, though; it was very bitter.

I also had some yellow squash to use up, so after about 30 minutes I added that to the dish, and that was good. I also made kale chips with the rest of the kale. One of my favorites! It's healthy and it satisfies my cravings for crunchy/salty.