Sausage-spiced Beets and Garlicky Greens Over Polenta
A root vegetable stunner you'll crave all year round
Plant-based people from all over the United States know Rachel Klein, of Miss Rachel’s Pantry, for her incredible vegan cooking. But she’s especially beloved in our shared hometown of Philadelphia, and we were all eager to see her on the Food Network’s “Beat Bobby Flay” cooking competition TV show.
No competition spoilers, in case you want to tune in, but I was inspired by one of the dishes she made. It was a creamy pasta dish in which small pieces of spiced beet stood in for pancetta and the beet greens were used in the sauce. I was planning to create a copycat recipe for you but then fate at the farmers market intervened.
The two bunches of spring beets I bought weighed 2 1/2 pounds. But when I washed it and broke it down in my kitchen, the small golden beetroots accounted for a measly 10 ounces of the total weight. The beets were about an inch wide, thin-skinned, as well as juicy. The fresh leafy greens were very abundant and way too beautiful to compost.
Whatever I ended up making was going to be a lot more greens than beets.
When I buy supermarket beets, they are always big boys with tough skin I want to peel. They are dry, dense, and firm to varying degrees. They’re rarely sold with their greens, and if they are still attached, you wouldn’t want to eat them.
This is the kind of thing that editors won’t let you say in publications, but the first step to any beet recipe is assessing the real vegetables you actually have in your hand.
A large, hard, old beet needs to be boiled or steamed before being roasted for best results. Over time spent cooking beets, years really, you figure this out.
For example: You roast beets for 40 minutes, longer than the recipe’s directions instruct, yet your beets are still hard and raw on the inside while having a bitter burnt exterior. The next time you get your hands on beets that look and feel that way, you know you need to try something else.
I like to steam beets for 10 or 20 minutes first if I think they fall into this roast-resistant category. Sometimes I steam-roast them by pouring a little boiling water right onto the sheet pan and then inverting a second sheet pan on top to trap the steam.
On the flip side, when you have baby farmers market beets, like the ones I got, you know they don’t need to be roasted for the usual 30 minutes. You see the skin is so thin you don’t even consider peeling it. I roasted my baby beets for only 15 minutes, an absurdly short time for beets.
If you want to make this recipe with June farmers’ market beets, check them after 15 minutes. If you want to make them with large supermarket beets that have been stored for some undetermined period of time, peel them and steam them first. Try 10 to 20 minutes. Stop when the beets feel slightly tender when pierced with a paring knife, then proceed to the roasting step.
You also have my full permission to start with pre-cooked packaged beets. The Love Beets brand is excellent. You can use those, roasting them in the oil and spices for only 10 to 15 minutes. Obviously, you will have no beet greens in that situation—use kale instead.
Back to Rachel Klein and her genius idea to use beets as a stand-in for pancetta. My dish became very different in the end, but I definitely used the spices I associate with a pork product—hot Italian sausage—to season the beets with great results. A roasted beet’s texture is satisfying and substantial in the way of meat, and the flavors bring the sausage vibes.
If you shop your farmers market for beets in the coming weeks, in the absence of a scale, I’d suggest buying two bunches of small golden beets with their greens for this recipe.
PS: Don’t forget to make or buy your polenta ahead of time for maximum ease.
Sausage-spiced Beets and Garlicky Greens Over Polenta
Serves 4
For the beets:
10 ounces beets, cut into ½-inch pieces
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
½ teaspoon fennel seeds, coarsely ground
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
¼ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons olive oil
For the greens:
2 bunches beet greens or other hardy greens (like kale), stems and tough ribs removed
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, sliced
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup toasted pine nuts
Polenta, for serving
Chopped basil, optional
Preheat the oven to 400℉.
To make the beets: In a large bowl, toss the beets with rosemary, fennel, red pepper flakes, salt, garlic powder, and olive oil.
Arrange on a rimmed baking sheet and cook until tender and browned at the edges, about 15 to 30 minutes depending on your beets' age, size, and toughness.
To make the greens, boil a pot of salted water and blanch the greens for 3 minutes. Pour the cooked greens into a colander and spray with cold water until cool to the touch. Ball up the wilted greens in your fist and squeeze the water out one handful at a time. Roughly chop the blanched greens.
Set a large skillet over low heat and add the olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes and salt. Cook until the garlic turns soft and golden, about 5 minutes. Add the blanched greens, and continue to cook, stirring, until the greens are coated with the spicy, garlicky oil and hot again, about 3 minutes.
Stir in the roasted beets and most of the pine nuts (leaving a few to garnish). Spoon the beets and greens on top of polenta, top with basil, and serve.