Beet Greens

By tschnet1

Ingredients

• 1 pound beet greens
• 1 strip of thick cut bacon, chopped (or a tablespoon of bacon fat)
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 3/4 cup of water
• 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/6 cup of cider vinegar

Details

Servings 4
Preparation time 5mins
Cooking time 30mins
Adapted from simplyrecipes.com

Preparation

Step 1

While this recipe calls for discarding the stems, if you want you can use them too if they aren't too woody. Just cut them into 1-inch segments and add them to the onions after the onions have been cooking for a minute.

In a large skillet or 3-qt saucepan, cook bacon until lightly browned on medium heat (or heat 1 Tbsp of bacon fat). Add onions, cook over medium heat 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occassionally, until onions soften and start to brown. Stir in garlic. Add water to the hot pan, stirring to loosen any particles from bottom of pan. Stir in sugar and red pepper. Bring mixture to a boil.

Add the beet greens, gently toss in the onion mixture so the greens are well coated. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 5-15 minutes until the greens are tender. Stir in vinegar. (For kale or collard greens continue cooking additional 20 to 25 minutes or until desired tenderness.)

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This would make a wonderful warm salad tossed with some bowtie or cavatelle pasta.

This is the most delicious recipe...I just finished cooking the beet greens (I use maple syrup instead of sugar - and salami in lieu of bacon) and then added the steamed baby beets into the beet green mixture. Beyond delicious.

Made it per instructions with the addition of 1/2 cup of beet green stems, diced, which were added 2 min after onions. Big hit, everybody loved the dish.

Vegetarian: omit bacon, substitute olive oil, add a handful of toasted pine nuts before serving. Do use the stems by chopping and adding to the water. Let them cook 3-5 minutes, then add the rest of the greens. They only need to wilt to be cooked 3-5 minutes). If you don't have enough beet greens (3 beets should yield about half a pound), you can supplement with any other greens. Ruby chard is very similar, and would work beautifully.

Great recipe. Definitely dice and use the beet stems if they're not too woody. I diced a whole yellow onion (large) and used olive oil along with about 4 oz. diced kielbasa (didn't have bacon). Also, suggest skipping the sugar and adding balsamic instead of cider vinegar -- 2 Tbs. worked for me.

Fantastic. I have never cooked beet greens before, just heard about how wonderful they are. This recipe was awesome. I love the vegetarian variation posted in the comments. :)

LOVED them! Saw a recipe for roasted beet salad on a cooking show today that looked wonderful. When I got the beets to make the recipe they had lovely leaves and stems and I wanted to find a recipe for them. This one was amazing. Will definitely make it again. I followed the recipe with one modification- I used seasoned rice vinegar- as I didn't have cider vinegar. I thought it worked well...although it's probably a little sweeter than if I had used the cider vinegar.

Wow this was good! I agree with the person who said they'd buy beets just to get the greens and use this recipe! I will definitely make it again.

This recipe is so delicious and I've shared it with several people.I use the vegetarian version with olive oil. However,the last time I added a few drops of hickory seasoning liquid smoke.Heavenly! Thank you Elise for this wonderful recipe.

Lovely recipe. We added extra red pepper flakes (1/8 tsp) for a kick at the end, which was great. The layers of flavor are awesome.

I loved this recipe. This is my first year growing beets in my garden (red and yellow) and only the second recipe I have made using cooked greens. I used 3 dried cayenne peppers from last years harvest and blended them with the sugar water. I added mushrooms with the onion, garlic and bacon. I used precooked bacon, so I sauteed everything in butter. The end result was just like a wilted spinach salad with sweet bacon dressing. The best part about it was that I was just thinning the beets, so it was an early vegetable.

You can also try to make a beet greens SOUP. It is very popular in my country Lithuania.

The recipe is very simple: beef or pork broth + beet greens with stems + carrots + potatoes. When serving you can add 1/2 of table spoon of sour cream. Delicious :)

Hi Elise, I find that cooked beet leaves are akin to the red leaf chard when cooked. However to me it has a much richer taste. I have cooked it by just sauteing it with a bit of red onion, salt and pepper and a few very small bits of hot peper flakes or a few thin slices of a hot peper like habernero and then squeezing a bit of lime on it before searving with a plate of steamed fish caribbean cooked style along with some thing we call fungi which is a corn meal mush with okras in it. The mush is done the same way you do polenta but cooked in the water that the okra is boiled in. The cooked beet dish is the side vegetable of greens as it's referred to back there.

Great recipe! I omitted the bacon and the sugar, and threw in a handful or two of dried currants along with the greens. They added a nice sweetness and contrasted well with the robust flavor of the vinegar. I also squeezed some lemon juice over it before serving. I will definitely be making it again the same way.

Just cooked them. They turned very good. I also added basil. Yummy!

This turned out great! I used the balsamic vinager instead of the cider vinegar and suger and I chopped up the stems and added them as suggested. The dish was so pretty with the dark greens and reds and the flavor was great. The greens seemed lighter and fresher than regular turnip greens that have cooked all day. I served them with black eyed peas and cheese quesidillas with the bacon and sun dried tomatoes on them... a very good meal! Great way to use those beet greens! Happy New Year!

- bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add beets and greens at the same time

If you want to do this Greek style, add olive oil to your pot, get the oil hot, add beets and greens, stir to coat, and add lemon juice. Don't be shy with the oil.

Slightly different take on this: again add the oil (again, don't be shy - that's why bread exists) to the pan, get it hot and add the beets and greens together with some minced garlic. Stir around so that the greens are coated and the garlic cooks a bit (you could also add the garlic before) and then add just a touch of very good quality balsamic vinegar (cheap stuff is going to make your beets taste like they came out of a jar...). This is my favourite way to do them, and people who normally don't like beets try them this way and then decide to change their minds about beets.

Another tasty idea for beet greens that I concocted the other day is to make a pesto out of the leafy greens (I chopped them before the stem got too thick because that part can be very bitter). In keeping with the fact that I was making a non-traditional pesto, I changed from pine nuts to pistachios, and I also squeezed in the juice of one lemon and a put in a few drops of white wine vinegar. The result was very delicious! Hope this gives you more inspiration for beet greens!

This recipe tastes quite a bit like the grass you'd feed a cow. While I'm sure the nutritional value is a plus, this is a dish I'm really going to need to modify to get the family to eat. I'm thinking of cutting the recipe and adding part to a chicken alfredo.

I added the stems AND I added some fresh, chopped ginger twice (once with the onions and garlic, and again with the greens). I tossed the whole mix with some cooked brown rice and chilled for a salad.

I used some kind of kale, no sugar b/c I used balsalmic, added cranberries and nuts for color. Great recipe, thank you!

I am 10 weeks preg and have been craving beets. I have never purchased or cooked beets before. Have eaten it before in a restaurant as a salad.Anyhow, I bought some today and it came with leaves. I boiled the beets with potatoes to make cold salad... but got rid of the greens as I had no idea that you could eat the greens. I cant wait to buy it again and try your recipe. its sounds delicious and healthy. will post again soon as i try it.

NUM! I've never cooked a sweet and vinegary stir fry before, but your directions were great and it turned out delicious! Thank you!

Great recipe. We were looking for a way not to waste the greens from the beets we bought at farmers market. This was a very tasty way to do that. Even my DH--who is usually not in love with the kale/greens recipes I prepare--really liked it. We will definitely keep this recipe on hand and make it again. The one modification I made (since I am trying to cut back on sugar) was to replace the tbsp of sugar with 1 tbsp of Agave Syrup. Tasted great!

Wonderful recipe. Added some baby spinach. Highly recommend. I always hated throwing out the green. Will now do this every time I get beets!! Vinegar finishes it off perfectly.

This is a great recipe. You can use swiss chard which is also in the beet family but is grown only for its greens. We can buy it year round in our area inexpensively. You get more greens buying it that way. Some of the stems are white, some are red like beets and some other colors are available. We make it a lot with just butter, vinegar, salt and pepper.

"...simmer for 5-15 minutes until the greens are tender... (For kale or collard greens continue cooking additional 20 to 25 minutes or until desired tenderness.)"

This is heaven! I'm glad I searched for a beet green recipe and came across this one. The flavors work so well, a keeper! I wanted to make more, so I added some spinach from my garden (at least 1/2 lb). I added some more bacon, a large onion, 5 big cloves/garlic, and kept same amount of water, sugar, pepper, vinegar. Aside from the spinach, my own additions were: 1 can cannellini beans (white kidney) rinsed/drained, and about 1/4 cup fresh parsley. Those were added into the cooked greens and simmered for a few minutes. I served this over quinoa, but pasta or rice would be fine, too. I can eat this all day, thank you!

Correction to my post above: Since I only had 1/2 lb. of beet greens, I added 1/2 lb. spinach. That's why I kept the water, pepper, vinegar amounts the same. But the recipe yielded a little more since I added more onions and included beans.

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