Category: Eats

I’ve been getting lots of beets in my Ambrose Farm CSA share, and I got tired of pickling them. They’re pretty good roasted in the oven and tossed into salads, but thought I’d try something different.
Borscht came to mind so I dug up a simple looking recipe from Food Network to try.
Had 4 beets left so I tossed them, some potatoes and a carrot (also all from Ambrose Farm) in some olive oil, sprinkled with salt and threw them on the grill to roast over indirect heat at low. The thermometer on the grill says it’s around 350°F. I also covered them with a foil pan to keep the heat in and help them roast faster.

The beets, potatoes and carrot hot off the grill

Once the beets cooled down a little, a little rubbing took the skins right off.

Cut up the beets and assemble the rest of the ingredients.

Onions, garlic and carrot were sauteed. I think I should have picked a different colour carrot. Didn’t really matter in the end anyway.

Add the chicken stock, let it simmer a bit and then in went the beets. The recipe called for blending, but my blender is kind of small, so I thought the food processor could puree things.
I ended up with finely chopped beets. Fail.
Then I thought I’d try the stick blender. It worked out a little better, although it still wasn’t very pureed.


In the end I ended up using the blender anyway doing it in about 3 batches. Now I have borscht! Tasted pretty good too with a dollop of sour cream. A little on the onion-y side though.

With the spring CSA and the bunches of kale that have come with it, I started making kale chips and am hooked on them now. They’re so easy to make and surprisingly tasty too.
There are lots of kale chip variants around. The one I started with was posted on allrecipes.com. I use an olive oil spray instead of drizzling, but the results come out pretty much the same.
Start with a bunch (or bunches) of kale washed very well. All those curvy and frilly leaves can capture a lot of dirt. Dirt is fine for growing things, but doesn’t make for very good eats.

Once the kale is nice and clean, rip the leaves off the stems into bite sized pieces. Dry them off well. A salad spinner works really well for this. If you’re going to use regular olive oil, drizzle 1-2 tablespoons (depending on how much kale you have) over the leaves and mix around so that all the leaves are coated.
Lay the leaves onto a sheet pan in a single layer. Spray with olive oil (skip this if you’ve already used oil) and then sprinkle on your seasoning of choice. I like Old Bay. Don’t use too much.

Throw into an oven at 350°F (176°C) and bake for about 10-12 minutes. Check on them at around the 8 minute mark. If you ripped your kale into small pieces, they might be done already. When the leaves start turning brown at the edges and looking a little shiny, take them out and let them cool. As they cool, they’ll start to get a little crispy.

Once they’ve cooled down some, dump them into a bowl and enjoy.

You might have to go through a few iterations to get the amount of seasoning you put on right. You might even want to try them naked (unseasoned), but I find kale chips a little on the bitter side that way.