Beets

Here's a quick Beet snack or appetizer. Besides roasting the Beets, the whole thing came together quickly. The Beet (and the tomatoes and parsley) came from my garden. I had planted seeds for Chioggia Beets, an Italian heirloom that is supposed to have alternating red and and white stripes like a bullseye. As you can see, there are no stripes. Maybe I mixed the seeds up with Golden Beet seeds, but that wouldn't explain the red blushing shown on the right side of the Beet slices. Who knows. If I get one with the stripes I'll post the picture. This was a great snack nonetheless.

Ingredients:
- Beets, well washed, not peeled (Preferably small ones.)
- Tomatoes (Yellow Pear and Supersweet 100 here.)
- Parsley, uncut leaves
- Sunflower seeds (Little ones.)
- Goat cheese
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Place cleaned Beets on a large piece of aluminium foil
- Coat Beets with a little olive oil and some salt and pepper
- Fold up foil to seal Beets inside, and place in hot oven for about 1 hr. 15 min.
- Turn off oven, and leave Beet packet inside for about another 30 min.
- Remove Beet packet from oven and allow them to get cool enough to handle
- While Beets are cooling, slice some cherry tomatoes in half
- Peel Beet by rubbing with a paper towel (The skin should come off easily.)
- Make a bed of parsley on the plate
- Slice a Beet and arrange on parsley
- Arrange tomatoes
- Lightly salt the Beet and tomatoes
- Drizzle olive oil over the Beet
- Add bits of goat cheese and some sunflower seeds

That's all there is to it. The Beet should be fork tender. It should taste slightly earthy, but not dirty (There is a difference.).