Beet it!

My disdain for beets (and almost all red food...except raspberries) began as a young child at the seder table.

For some ridiculous, insane reason that I could never figure out, my uncle (my mother's brother) did not adore my grandmother's chicken soup, the recipe which remains in my family to this day. I don't get it. It's irrational, I know, but there's no accounting for taste. In order to appease her firstborn, my grandmother made him beet borscht, (and although it could have been served at our house at other times during the year, I only remember this occasion vividly) which he adored.

Each year, I watched as the bowl of soup was placed in front of him. I remember becoming horrified that someone might actually drink that red stuff. To me, the whole event was akin to a vampire lapping up his victim. My stomach turned at the thought, and thus my aversion to most foods red was born.

Beet borscht became even more abhorrent when I saw it served with a dollop of sour cream. Two images constantly came to mind....calomine lotion and Pepto Bismol, neither of which seemed appetizing. For the next almost half century, I managed to avoid beets, and other red foods (save raspberries, which are, holy....well, to me they are), including tomato juice, red Kool Aid and even red Smarties (I definitely ate the red ones last....if at all).

Alas, life moves on. Over the years, I would accidentally and occasionally be introduced to beets. Usually it happened that I would meet them on a dish served to me at a restaurant. Politely I would give them a try, and oddly enough, found them to be...gulp....tasty. Still, it's a long road from giving them a taste and actually buying them and bringing them into my home to cook them.

Enter Facebook.

A few days ago, I got mired (ok, involved) in a conversation with some friends, some foodies and wannabe foodies about how we might decide to eat more vegetables in 2012. Somehow, the topic of how to best prepare beets came up. Recipes galore ensued, and my interest was piqued....but not enough to CTRL C and then paste. However, beets were in the cards.

Enter Jamie Oliver and his Meals in Minutes. What did he choose to cook the very day following this discussion? Beets. That was it..serendipity won. I was off to the supermarket to experiment.

I decided to try a cold beet salad. I grated the beets with visions of beet borscht pasts dancing visciously in my head, creating.my personal, gastronomic post traumatic stress reaction. Nevertheless, I pushed on, adding some olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper as per Jamie's directions. I took a spoonful,

Tasteless. Now what?

I grabbed some raisins and some almonds, and called my daughter into the room to do some taste testing. She so innocently remarked that my concoction reminded her of charoset (even SHE was reminded of Pesach!!!). We did a bit of brainstorming and decided that a bit of honey was in order.

And voila! It tasted pretty...not bad! Everyone seemed to enjoy the salad, which now means that I will experiment with beets more often.

But don't expect beet borscht on the table any time soon!