What to cook with beetroot: 4 recipes

How to choose and store beetroot

Choose firm, heavy, medium-sized beets with smooth skin and no soft spots. Very large roots are often woody inside; small and medium ones cook faster and taste sweeter. If the leaves are attached, they should look fresh, not limp.

At home, cut off the leaves, leaving a couple of centimetres of stem, and keep the roots unwashed in a bag in the vegetable drawer: they last for weeks. Cooked beetroot keeps for three to four days in the fridge, which is the key to making beetroot salads on a weeknight.

Raw beetroot can also be grated into salads, but the recipes here all use cooked beetroot, which is sweeter and softer.

Tips that make beetroot dishes better

• Cook it whole with the skin on and the tail intact; it keeps colour and sweetness. Peel once cool, when the skin slips off easily.
• Bake instead of boiling if you have time: wrapped in foil, beetroot tastes deeper and less watery.
• Add acid to borscht. A little vinegar or lemon keeps the soup a bright ruby colour instead of brownish.
• Wear gloves or rub your hands with lemon afterwards; use a plastic board, not a wooden one.

A beetroot week: what to cook

• Sunday: cook a big pot of classic beef borscht, and cook extra beets whole at the same time.
• Tuesday: vinegret from the ready beetroot, potatoes and carrots.
• Thursday: beetroot salad with garlic and walnuts as a side for fish or cutlets.
• A celebration: herring under a fur coat, assembled the day before.

Batch cooking, kids and budget

Boil or bake a kilo of beetroot at once; peeled and kept in a covered container, it becomes three different dishes over the week. Grated cooked beetroot also freezes well for the next borscht.

Children often prefer beetroot in sweet, mild forms: in vinegret or borscht with a spoon of sour cream rather than with raw garlic. Beetroot is one of the cheapest vegetables and keeps for weeks, so it is a reliable budget base all winter.