Amp Up the Beets

First Beet recipe drop, just in time for a Turkey Day side.

Southern food has long been plagued by false stereotypes

Heavy

Unhealthy

High Fat content

Fried foods are bad

and the list could go on

As having some family connection to Southern food I can tell you this is largely false. Family trips when I was a kid included humid summer days, riding lawn mowers, fireflies at night, and Great Aunt Edith’s buttered lima beans 🤤 (among other things).

Back in the day Southern food used a lot of healthy animal fats and butter. It wasn’t until later that Crisco and seed oils came along as a cheaper alternative.

Another news flash, fried foods don’t have to be unhealthy. (I wrote about this at length last year; see prev link). Frying in healthy/good fats at the proper temperature makes a huge difference in this largely-false idea that “fried foods soak up oil”.

Finally, most people are clueless to the fact that Southern cuisine is chocked full of vegetables. At mealtimes, seeing 5 or more vegetable side dishes wouldn’t be uncommon.

I definitely have more to say about Southern cuisine but for now, let’s talk vegetables and Thanksgiving.

Hard to believe I haven’t dropped a beet recipe yet in the Substack so today I’m dropping a simple and dearly loved recipe… straight from the South. This will pair perfectly with Thanksgiving dinner but you’ll want to keep making these all year, they’re so good 🤤

Since most people think cooking beets is a pain or a hassle, I’m going to show you how to easily prepare beets at home that will allow you to finish them in a variety ways; for salads, grilling, frying, puréed, pickling; sky is the limit- and you’ll never want to buy canned beets again. 😉