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Beet Greens Recipe

Filed under Side Dish, Vegetable, Wheat-free

Beet Greens

All these years I've been loving beets but throwing the beet greens away. Yikes! No more. This is a delicious way to serve greens, whether collard, kale, or beet.

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Beet Greens Recipe

Ingredients

1 pound beet greens
1 strip of thick cut bacon, chopped
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

Method

Wash the greens in a sink filled with cold water. Drain greens and wash a second time. Drain greens and remove any heavy stems. Tear leaves into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.

In a 3 qt saucepan, cook bacon until lightly browned. 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. Continue cooking until mixture boils. Add greens, reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes (up to 30 minutes for kale or collard greens). Stir in vinegar. (For kale or collard greens continue cooking additional 20 to 25 minutes or until desired tenderness.)

Serves 4.

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Posted by Elise on Mar 29, 2004 and indexed Bacon, Beets, Green Vegetables, Greens

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Comments

I think this is great!

Posted by: Marlene Pegel on June 26, 2004 5:39 PM

I tried this last night. Y-U-M!

Posted by: carolyn on June 28, 2005 5:52 AM

If I'm reading the recipe correctly, you cook the beet greens almost an hour. Is that right? I steam them for less than 8 minutes & they are like ambrosia w/a bit of butter & fresh ground pepper.

Posted by: Tami Lynn Edwards on August 10, 2005 12:05 PM

Hi Tami Lynn - well, I consulted with the primary beet green cooker of the house and he is chagrined that the timing given was off for beet greens. You're right! Beet greens are like spinach; they cook up fast. Collard greens and kale on the other hand, can sometimes take a while to get tender. I've adjusted the recipe. Thanks for the catch!

Posted by: elise [TypeKey Profile Page] on August 10, 2005 6:17 PM

How in the world do you get a pound of beet greens? You'd have to buy a ton of beets to get that much - or do they sell the greens separately?

Posted by: Teresa on February 14, 2006 11:41 AM

Great recipe. The only thing I'd do differently would be the use of the stems: rather than throwing them away, I'd chop them up and throw them in the pan ahead of the greens, letting them cook until they're soft. They're really good, and a pretty color.

Posted by: Beetie on June 17, 2006 6:01 PM

I have been eating beet greens ever since I was a little girl and my mom used to serve them to us kids, they are one of my favorite greens and no you do not have to cook them very long about like spinach

Posted by: Mary Jo on June 19, 2006 12:44 PM

Crazy Thick Leaves

Are we talking about the same beets? These seem very THICK and raw, they taste a little like grass, although my wife seems to think they taste a bit like spinach.

Posted by: Peter on July 27, 2006 7:32 PM

Excellent! I went a little on the longer side to let the liquid reduce, and they turned out wonderfully. (And none of the gritty teeth that spinach and chard can cause!)

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

Thanks!

Posted by: Bill on April 3, 2007 2:10 PM

This is a great recipe. I was grilling the beets and I decided to do something with the beet greens but the greens were more interesting than the beets. I didn't have any pepper flakes so left them out and it was fine.

Posted by: judy on July 8, 2007 10:33 AM

This was the best beet greens recipe I have ever made! I will definitely try it again.

Posted by: Patty on July 23, 2007 9:36 AM

We were making beets for dinner and searched for a recipe to use the greens. I found this one and we had all the ingredients except bacon. So I used a leftover turkey sausage link instead. (One clump of 3 beets = 1/4 lb of greens so I quartered all the quantities) We thought this tasted wonderful and complimented the main course shrimp and side dish beets perfectly. It was exactly 2 servings.

Posted by: Joni Parker on August 17, 2007 10:15 PM

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.

Posted by: Linda on November 10, 2007 12:51 PM

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.

Thanks, Elise.

Posted by: sac-eats on December 23, 2007 5:28 PM

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