This is week two of the 5th Annual Dark Days Challenge, a 4 1/2 month pledge by participants to eat one SOLE meal a week: a meal as Sustainable, Organic, Local and Ethical as possible. Weekly participant recaps are being rounded up by the good people at Not Dabbling in Normal.
This week, we’ve been overrun with beet greens. They’re good in a salad and as wraps — two things that my daughter has no interest in these days.
Instead, I’ve been using them in items Nina is guaranteed to sample: pesto and smoothies.
We’ve had enough cold nights that these leaves are even sweeter than usual, with a chard-like flavor and leaves as tender as micro greens.
With a head of garlic from the garden, a small glug of best-quality olive oil, Maldon sea salt and fresh cracked pepper, this pesto is ready before your pasta is finished boiling.
To give this pesto a hint of creaminess, cut back on the oil and add a tablespoon or two of your pasta water, just before draining. All of that starch works wonders for texture.
Breakfast smoothie: this one contained a handful of berries frozen at their summer peak, green (not purple) beet leaves, alt milk and a dash of local maple syrup we picked up during our annual summer trip to the Soo.
And for the grownups of the house: beautiful beets, simply roasted.
What a great way (2 ways actually) to use beet greens. Thanks! Another Great DDC meal!
They are sooooooooo good in smoothies! And even easier to hide in pesto than shizo, which we are overrun with half of the year.
I’m really jealous of your gardening capabilities combined with your kitchen prowess. I would probably behave like I’m an in infomercial if I had that many beet greens — they’d be flying out of my hands, I’d drop them on the ground and then trip on them and rub my head with an “aw, that smarts!” expression on my face, I’d pull something unidentifiably burnt out of the oven and dramatically shake my head. You’re an inspiration.
Lady, I am completely jealous of your artistic abilities – not just with materials, but your writing/media projects as well!
And re: inspiration — I’m putting a zine together for next year, maybe a short series of them – which I never would have considered had it not been for GDA. So there! (Also – shit! I need to submit a couple of articles to you for the DGA site.)
Hooray for mutual jealousy and inspiration! Speaking of zines, I meant to ask you if it’d be okay to post your article that was originally going to be printed in the zine on the GDA site. We’re still interested in doing a zine, but not for a while and I don’t want your article to go to waste. Would that be okay? We can link to your blog, of course. And any other articles you’d like to share are certainly welcome.
Yes, please feel free to use the article, and edit if necessary to fit the new format. Which I love, by the way.
I’m planning to write a vegan knitting/fibers/textiles article (or something along those lines) for after the holidays, if you’re interested. As soon as I can put my knitting needles down long enough to write something.
Awesome. And thank you. Someone was just asking me about vegan knitting and crocheting not too long ago. We’d love to post an article about it, whenever you have time.
Beet green pesto sounds rockin’!
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