I don’t usually post a pile of recipes here, but Friday night I was faced with a nice bunch of golden beets that needed to be used. I made a loaf with the beet greens and then grated and sauteed the beets with a parsnip.

The mother recipes I began with were out of Jeannette Ferrary’s and Louise Fiszer’s The California-American Cookbook: Innovations on American Regional Dishes. But since I was missing some ingredients and had some others on hand, the final preparations ended pretty different from the originals. Both seemed like good ways to honor ingredients that are now in season.

John usually only grudgingly accepts beets at the table. However, he thought both of these were keepers, so I thought I’d better write them down before I forget what I did.

If this were a proper food blog, I’d have waylaid the plates on the way to the table before serving them. But the food was long gone before I had a chance to think of that. Maybe I should have posted photos of the dirty dishes after all the beet concoctions had been devoured…

Loaf of Beet Greens

• Olive oil
• Beet greens, tops of 1 large bunch (ca. 3 large beets), including stems, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 medium onion, chopped fine
• 1 serrano chili, seeded, membranes removed, slivered
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used Trader Joes’ Quattro Formaggi)
• 1/4 pound good firm tofu, cut in 3/8 inch cubes
• salt
• pepper
• small sprinkling of nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350. Saute beets, onion, garlic and chili in oil until wilted, ca. 5-8 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat.

Mix eggs, cheese, tofu and nutmeg in bowl, and then stir into beet green mixture.

Pour into greased loaf pan and bake 25 minutes. Allow to set 10 minutes before serving.

Serves 4

Root Vegetables in Tequila Lime Butter

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 large beets, golden beets preferred, ends removed, peeled and grated
• 1 medium parsnip, peeled and grated
• zest of 1 lime
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons tequila
• salt
• pepper
• 2 tablespoons minced cilantro to garnish (optional)

In a bowl mix together lime juice, zest and sugar. In a saucepan saute beets in melted butter over high heat for 3 minutes. Add salt and pepper. Add tequila, and then lime mixture, and cook for 3 more minutes. Serve garnished with cilantro.

Serves 3-4