Vegetarian Family

A Peek @ Food We Eat & Things We Do!

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Orange-Glazed Beets, Quick Asparagus Saute, & Creamy Hummus

I really love beets, especially the orange ones. They are less messy than the red and the flavor is so sweet. I had some organic beets on hand, and instead of making them my regular way, I decided to turn to the cookbooks. I found 'Orange-Glazed Beets' in VwaV and busted out my veggie peeler - something I never use when it comes to beets. What I usually do is trim off the top and boil - leaving on the skin. Then after the beet cools, voila! the skin just slides off - leaving a naturally juicy beet. I'll go back to doing that next time. For the asparagus, I also decided to use a recipe and found Dreena's 'Quick Asparagus Saute' in TEV. The asparagus was perfect! But inquiring minds ask, "Why does asparagus make your pee smell funny?" On the plate, you also see: lemon for the asparagus, fresh apricot, & citrus sparerib cutlets.


Earlier that day, we were famished! I kicked into auto-pilot and made Dreena's 'Creamy Hummus' from Vive by heart. It's because I *heart* this recipe! I threw some fresh parsley in the food processor for some added zing, and topped off with a fresh tomato. This was gone in no time at all!






16 Comments:

Blogger Tanya Kristine said...

i just cannot love beets and i hate that. they're too earthy for me.

but hummus? i could sleep in a pile of hummus and wake up and eat my 'bed'. mmm....

9:01 AM  
Blogger Crystal said...

Never tried beets, but I know they will be coming in our crop share soon, so it will be a first!

Btw, I finally updated my links and linked to you :) I do love your website.

-Crystal

9:53 AM  
Blogger Eat Peace Please said...

Ooh, this just looks wonderful. I've never seen nor heard of orange beets. Maybe that will make me want to try them since they don't stain.

And I almost have the creamy hummus recipe down by heart too.

10:42 AM  
Blogger jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

I would love some hummus right now!

11:07 AM  
Blogger Shananigans said...

I like beets ok, maybe if I run across some exceptional beets at the market on Friday I will pick some up and try to do something with them. They are plentiful right now. I love asparagus! As a kid I wouldn’t touch a lot of vegetables and asparagus was somewhere on the top of that list. But my mom always way overcooked vegetables so maybe that had something to do with it. But she did make some good beets come to think of it, my tastes have changed so dramatically since I was such a picky kid that pretty much just wanted to eat a folded over ketchup sandwich on Roman Meal. How I miss having that big plot of summer garden *sigh*. Hummus is soooo yummy! I should pick up some more chickpeas on my way home.

11:27 AM  
Blogger Dreena said...

Vicki, that bit about the asparagus and pee - funny! We joke about that all the time here (yes, we obviously need more amusement in our lives - ha!), my older girl LOVES asparagus, and after when peeing says in a silly voice "mommy, I've got asparagus pee again"!! It really is a bizarre thing about asparagus.

oh, Tanya, btw, you are a riot "I could sleep in a pile of hummus..." you are a hoot!

12:18 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

know what's werid. Apparently there are some people in this world that don't get the weird asparagus pee. My mother loves asparagus, eats in all the time, and she had never even heard of her pee smelling funning until it came up in a recent conversation. For her, her pee smells normal. She asked her doctor and apparently some people have the capacity to break down whatever stuff smells funny, and other's (most) don't. My mother is a genetic superwoman!

I can't beleive I just wrote a paragraph all about pee!

1:54 PM  
Blogger Tanya Kristine said...

megan, that's true. and i heard that only about 15% of the peopel cannot "digest" asparagus. seems more like 85% to me.

i had veggie bisque the other day and i knew asparagus was one of the veggies...guess how i knew? that's right! i'm one of the 15%!

Dreena...i LOVE YOUR BOOKS! i just got them yesterday and stayed up til 9 reading them! i'm going to try the chickpea mash...

3:17 PM  
Blogger Dori said...

The pee thing... i never heard of that before, but then I haven't ever went sniffing. I think it is funny that you found someone who actually wrote a whole essay on the subject.

The color of your beets, that is is new to me. I have to show you a picture of my yellow raspberries sometime.

4:24 PM  
Blogger Catherine Weber said...

I have never heard of the asparagus pee thing either.

Megan, I have written whole paragraphs on weirder things.

Gold beets! I have been wanting to try them for ages, and now I have inspiration! Good tip, Vicki, for boiling with the skins on. I've also been interested in roasting them. I have laxed on my "new produce item of the week" for some time now, so I think it's about time to start up again . . . with some beets!

8:19 PM  
Blogger KleoPatra said...

Creamy hummus in that gorgeous blue square bowl with the lovely tomatoes on top. So nice, Vicki. Refreshing, it would seem.

And the beets in the other bowl with the gorgeous asparagus and other assorted goodies on the other bowl (also quite lovely and rather retro-ish looking)... Nice!! Better than nice, really.

Vicki, e-mail me at kbperes@hotmail.com so i can tell u about SIPZ, which is at sipz.com, by the way, and is in Clairemont off the 805 freeway (inland from the 5) ... and other stuff. Also, i would so very much love to meet you in person, if you can/want to...

8:51 PM  
Blogger Carrie™ said...

Ahhh, so it's the methanethiol! Now it all makes sense ;o) I wonder if you could run your car on that?
I'm among the beet lovers. And beets with orange is such a great combination.
When I saw your midweek munchies a while ago I was wondering why you were buying so much toothpaste. It has suddenly become very clear. (I love the little pudgy hands in the picture)

9:39 PM  
Blogger funwithyourfood said...

Another page with apricots! I need to get some of those!

Orange glazed beets sound great. Glazed anything is good actually.

Teddy

7:33 AM  
Blogger Crystal said...

Oh yeah - forgot to mention that I don't get asparagus pee (or can't smell it), but I guess Ryan gets asparagus pee.

Yes, I did have to share :)

-Crystal

7:47 AM  
Blogger MeloMeals said...

delicious! I love the photo of the hummus..

7:50 AM  
Blogger Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

Thanks so much, Crystal, I'll link you & Ryan too.

Shannon: What's up with our generation's parents always over-cooking vegetables?

Kleo: I emailed you, & I hope we get to meet!! I'll definately check out Sipz.

Everybody: Eat some asparagus & do the smell test. :o)

7:00 PM  

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