Nourished Magazine :: Wisdom to thrive by

Always buy Beetroots with their tops intact to judge freshness and eat them together - the combination is excellent nutritionally speaking and the bitter of the leaves complements the sweet of the beetroot well. You can eat the beetroot raw or cooked but be sure to cook the leaves adding fat or oil to denature the oxalic acid and increase the absorbability of the carotenoids.

Everyone knows how to grate a beetroot with carrot to make beetroot salad so here are two recipes for fermented and cooked beetroot.

Beet Kvass

This recipe can be found in Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions.

This drink is valuable for its medicinal qualities and as a digestive aid. Beets are loaded with nutrients. One glass morning and night is an excellent blood tonic, promotes regularity, aids digestion, alkalizes the blood, cleanses the liver and is a good treatment for kidney stones and other ailments. Beet kvass may also be used in place of vinegar in salad dressings and as an addition to soups.

You need

• 3 medium or 2 large organic beetroot, peeled an chopped up coarsely.
• 1/4 cup whey made fresh from raw milk, leave raw milk on the bench it will turn to cheese and whey within a few days (if fresh whey is not available just add another tablespoon of sea salt)
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• filtered water

Process:

Place beetroot, whey and salt in a 2-quart glass container. Add filtered water to fill the container. Stir well and cover securely. Keep at rooom temperature for 2 days before transferring to refrigerator.

When most of liquid has been drunk, you may fill up the container with water and keep at room temperature another 2 days. The resulting brew will be slightly less strong than the first. After the second brew, discard the beets and start again. You may, however, reserve some of the liquid and use this as your inoculant instead of the whey.

Note: Do not use grated beetroot in the preparation of beet tonic. When grated, beets exude too much juice resulting in a too rapid fermentation that favors the production of alcohol rather than lactic acid.

Roast Beetroot Salad

So yummy, everyone will come back for more.

You need:

• 4 beetroot
• organic sour cream, home made is best. Just leave raw cream out on the bench overnight or add Kefir.
• 1 clove garlic
• salt
• nutmeg

Process:

Roast the beetroot at 180 deg C until the skin wrinkles. Cool and peel the skin off. Process in a food processor (or mash with a potato masher) with sour cream, crushed garlic and salt to your taste. Steam the tops if you have any with nutmeg (to help denature oxalic acid) and chop. Add to the mix. Enjoy

About the Author...

Joanne Hay, Editor of Nourished Magazine, Chief Nourisher and Mother of three is very grateful to live in Byron Bay and be able to share all she has learned about Nourishment. She has trained as an Acupuncturist (unfinished), Kinesiologist (finished) and parent (never finished). She serves the Weston A Price Foundation as a chapter leader. She loves sauerkraut, kangaroo tail stew, home made ice cream, her husband Wes and her kids Isaiah, Brynn and Ronin (in no particular order…well maybe ice cream first).