beets

I used to be a beet hater like blaaf, but beets and I have come to an understanding. For example, I think they're really excellent when roasted and served with gorgonzola cheese and toasted pecans.

As an experiment, a friend of mine made a recipe that resembled tzatziki, which is usually a yogurt dip with cucumbers and garlic, substituting beets for the cucumbers. My friend, who'd actually gone through all the trouble of making it, couldn't stand the stuff, but I thought it was yummy - the sweet, earthy beet flavor was pretty subtle, but a slightly stronger flavor than cucumber. And it looked really neat: the stuff was a most unnatural shade of magenta. I've never seen food that color before.

Also, if you eat a lot of beets, your pee will turn pink.

Beets are a member of the goosefoot family. There are red, orange, yellow, white and two-toned varieties. It wasn’t until the 16th century that red beets became popular.

Beets contain vitamins A and C, riboflavin, iron, and potassium. Beet greens supply a good amount of calcium, but also contain oxalic acid, which will apparently leach calcium from your system.

It is not true for everyone that eating beets will produce pink urine. The pigment in the red beet root is betacyanin. The ability to digest betacyanin comes from a single gene. If both of your parents had a recessive gene, you will not be able to digest betacyanin and the red pigment will pass intact through your digestive tract.

Note: Combined with acid, red beets turn a vivid crimson, but with sufficient alkali they will turn blue.