First Dish: Beets and Apples

My husband is out of town and we still have tons of leftovers from the weekend, so I did not want to cook a full meal tonight. Instead, I decided to just make a side dish/desert: Beets and Apples.

First, I got all the ingredients out:

12 beets
6 apples
4 tbsp butter
cinnamon
nutmeg
ginger
cloves

Then, I set out to prepare the beets for cooking. Now, I have never eaten a beet that I am aware of. I certainly have never handled raw beets, so I was a little unsure of what to do. I just dove in. I cut the leafy part off and any stringy roots from the ends:

Then, I boiled the beets for 30 minutes:

While the beets boiled, I peeled and sliced 6 apples. These apples did not come from the CSA, I already had them in the house.

I drained the boiling water and ran the beets under cold water. Here are the cooked beets:

Next, I took a knife and cut a slit in the outside of the beet so that I could slide the peel off. I peeled the beets easily, then sliced the beets about 1/4 inch thick. At this stage the beets turn everything they touch purple, so BEWARE any white counter-tops or dish towels, and wash your hands often to avoid staining.

I took a large sauce pan, I added the sliced beets, the sliced apples, the 4 tbsp of butter, 6 generous shakes of cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg, a dash of cloves, and 2 dashes of ginger.

With a wooden spoon, I tossed all the ingredients. I cooked this mixture on medium for 5-8 minutes, tossing occasionally.

In the end, the dish came out looking beautiful!

The beets have a mild flavor and do a good job of cutting the sweetness of cooked apples. I would classify this more as a side dish than as a desert though. I hate cranberry sauce, so this might be a nice substitution for cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving. 

All in all this was a successful first dish!

Tomorrow I will be a little more ambitious. I am making a grilled eggplant sandwich and crispy radish chips.