Most diet programs tell you you to eat more vegetables which can be a challenge because it can get boring real quick, so I'm always looking for new ways to gussy up vegetables, and make them more interesting.
In this tutorial, Executive Chef Victor Scargle at Julia's Kitchen at COPIA in the gorgeous Napa Valley shows us how to make their yummy-renowned Roasted Baby Beat Salad. The health-giving benefits of beets include:
- High in fiber and rich in vitamins A and C
- More iron than other vegetables, including spinach
- Rich in calcium, potassium, and phosphorus, as well as folic acid, which helps protect you from heart disease and guards against birth defects.
- The beet's red coloring comes from betalains—a combination of the purple pigment betacyanin and the yellow pigment betaxanthin. "The betalain pigments are potent antioxidants," says Irwin Goldman, Ph.D., a beet geneticist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Antioxidants deter the formation of cancer-causing free radicals.
[via Organic Gardening]
Who knew that beets could be so alluring? Most of the veggies used in the dishes at Julia's Kitchen are grown in their organic garden near the restaurant with a yield of 60% in the winter, and 90% in the summer. How yummy! I'm all for places that practice sustainable organic gardening to provide people with vibrant produce to keep us healthy. Right on!
