Roasted Beets in Herb Yogurt

So things have gotten weird since our last blog post. The novel coronavirus has caused a global pandemic, and we’re starting to see an uptick in COVID-19 cases in our area. The past week at work has been incredibly stressful, with a lot of confusion and worry. We actually are now on vacation for two weeks, though our trip to Istanbul was obviously cancelled. So we’re staycationing and are grateful to take a break from work while this is going on. We just found out this afternoon that the governor cancelled all school through the end of the school year and ordered all non-essential businesses to close for 30 days. What a crazy new reality we all are finding ourselves in. I have a lot of thoughts and worries about all of this, but as we’ve mentioned before, this blog is supposed to be light-hearted and an outlet, so we’ll skip those for now.

Tonight’s side dish is another from this month’s Cookbook Club selection – Deep Run Roots, by Vivian Howard. The first one we shared was Smoky Spiced Pecans from earlier this month! This is a different way to eat beets for us and is really an easy side dish option. She serves it with lamb kebabs, but we had ours with some steak and that was a nice accompaniment. We both liked this recipe and decided it’d be even better with a little feta on top!

Roasted Beets in Herb Yogurt

Adapted from Deep Run Roots, by Vivian Howard

Ingredients: 

• 2 medium beets, scrubbed
• 1/3 cup “Greek”-style yogurt
• 1 lemon, zested & juiced
  • Zest of the whole lemon
  • 1 tbsp juice
• 1 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp fresh mint, chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh dill, chopped

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice the beets in half and place on a baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
2. Meanwhile, whisk together the remaining ingredients.
3. Once beets are done, allow to cool enough to handle, then peel and slice into large chunks.
4. Toss the beets in the yogurt sauce and serve.

Serves 4 as a side dish