Vegetable
Beetroot
RemolachaRemolatxaBeta vulgaris
It stains everything it touches, chopping board and pride included. But roasted, it turns sweeter than almost any vegetable.
When
Around: Oct–Apr · At its best: Nov–Feb
Around: Oct–Apr · At its best: Nov–Feb
Around: Apr–Oct · At its best: May–Aug
Around here
Catalan markets mostly sell it ready-cooked and vacuum-packed, less often raw with its leaves. It's the same species as chard, and the leaves cook just like chard.
At the market
- Raw: hard, heavy and smooth-skinned, with no wrinkles or soft spots.
- Better with leaves: if they're fresh, so is the beetroot, and you get two vegetables.
- Medium-sized: huge ones take ages to cook and can be woody.
- Cooked and packed: check the date and that the pack isn't puffed up.
At home
- Cut off the leaves, leaving a couple of fingers of stalk, and keep them separately.
- The root, unwashed, in a bag in the fridge: two or three weeks.
- The leaves, like chard: within a couple of days.
- Cooked and opened, in a tub in the fridge, four or five days.
If you have too much
- Cooked or roasted, peeled and diced, it freezes well for soups and salads.
- Pickled in vinegar with a little sugar and spice: keeps for weeks in the fridge.
- Crisps: sliced paper-thin and baked in a low oven until crunchy.
In the kitchen
- Roasted in foil, peeled and in a salad with orange and fennel.
- Raw and grated with carrot and apple, with a good dressing.
- Beetroot hummus, a pink that doesn't look real.
- Soup, cold or hot, with a spoonful of yoghurt on top.
- The leaves, sautéed with garlic like chard.
- As a carpaccio, thinly sliced with goat's cheese and walnuts.
What it brings
Per 100 g, raw.
- Energy
- 43 kcal
- Water
- 88% water
- Carbs
- 9.6 g
- Sugars
- 6.8 g
- Fibre
- 2.8 g
- Protein
- 1.6 g
Stands out for
- High in folate109 µg · 55% of what you need in a day
- Source of potassium325 mg · 16% of what you need in a day
Data from the USDA (FoodData Central). See the full table ↗ · How we decide what stands out
Goes with
- OrangeNov–MayOranges don't ripen once picked: what you buy is what you get. So it pays to know how to choose them.
- FennelOct–AprIt tastes of aniseed, and that splits families. Raw and thinly sliced it's crunchier than almost anything; roasted it turns sweet and mellow, and even the other side starts to waver.
- CarrotSept–MayIt's around most of the year, but winter carrots, from cold ground, are the sweetest. If one still has its tuft of leaves, you know it hasn't spent months in cold storage.