Love Beets? If you do, you’ll love this super quick and easy beety curry for beet lovers! Depending on how quickly you can chop things up this can be done in 30 minutes tops!
I cannot say that beets and I experienced love at first sight. Quite the opposite was the case, to be honest: we’ve been enjoying more of a “let’s try to grow on each other” kind of relationship. Speaking of growing: Growing up in Germany in the 80s and 90s, fried potatoes with a side of pickled beets were a thing – and I just couldn’t understand everybody’s (mainly my mom’s and grandma’s) excitement about it. Not in my wildest dreams would I have thought about creating a Beety Curry for Beet Lovers and sharing it with excitement. But hey, life turns out in funny ways sometimes, doesn’t it?
The funny turn of the story
Nowadays, one of my favorite memories of my grandma is actually related to beets. To this day I hold fond memories of sharing dinner with her when she was already well over 80 and I was vegan already. At this point in our lives, the only dish we could actually share and enjoy together was – you might have guessed it: fried potaoes with a side of pickled beets 🙂 This is just one of the many reasons why I am happy now that over the years I actually took the time and made the effort to get myself acquainted with beets after all. Nowadays I simply LOOOOVE the rooty colorful veggie in all kinds of ways: raw, cooked, pickled, fermented, with or without their greens… You name it, I love it!
A Beety Experiment
This week I felt like having a beety dish but I also felt like trying something new so I started experimenting and this is how the Beety Curry for Beet lovers came into being. While cooking I already had so much fun because of course the beet turned the curry pink very quickly and that always puts me into a good mood. But I also had some nice tunes playing while cooking and of course dancing while cooking makes every dish better automatically 🙂 So shall we start cooking now?
In the left picture below you see all of the ingredients, except for the chilli flakes that I decided to add after I had already taken the pic. The right picture shows pretty in pink 🥰 The recipe is below 👇
Recipe: Beety Curry for Beet Lovers
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 big beet (preferably with greens, I find they make a difference!)
- 1 big carrot
- 1 stick of celery
- 1 zucchini
- 2-3 mushrooms
- asparagus if in season (I used one big stick but next time I’d use 2)
- 1 onion and/or a piece of leek (I used leek)
- 1 clove of garlic
- red lentils (about 2 cups)
- coconut oil
- coconut milk
SPICES:
- salt
- pepper
- ginger powder
- turmeric powder
- chili flakes
- yacon (optional, alternatively you can also use agave)
- veggie broth (optional, I didn’t end up using it)
PREPARATION:
- Chop up all veggies. I like leaving them chunky so I have something to chew on.
- Heat up the coconut oil and start frying the leek and the garlic.
- When it’s sizzling, add chili flakes, ginger, turmeric and pepper. You can be generous with all, unless you’re sensitive to spiciness. This is also when you can add a bit of yacon or agave sirup to add some sweetness.
- Now start adding the veggies, give each one a few moments and good stirs before adding the next. My preferred order of veggies to go in is: carrots, celery, beets, zucchini, mushrooms, asparagus. Let everything fry for about 5 minutes.
- Add the lentils and fry them for a moment. Just make sure you keep stirring them, as they tend to get sticky quickly 🙂
- Now add equal amounts of water and coconut milk, start with about 250ml of each (that’s about 8.5 oz.) and adjust the amount to your liking. I prefer to have it a bit on the coconutty side but you might not. This is also where you could add the veggie broth but I found it had enough flavor on its own already.
- Put the lid on the pot and let everything simmer for about 5-10 minutes on medium heat.
- Do a taste test and add more spices as needed – done!
👩🏼🍳 Serve in a pretty bowl and enjoy the colors and the flavors!
NOTE: I never peel my veggies to add more nutrients and also to increase the chances of more B12 in my dishes. At least in theory – with regards to B12 – as it is a bacteria that comes from our soil. However, nowadays our soils are not very rich in B12 anymore and also of course I wash my veggies, which rinses the B12 away with the “dirt”. However, I buy organic veggies only and do not recommend consuming unpeeled non-organic ingredients!
Need some more food for thought?
Shampoo Thoughts on Happiness is a collection of epiphanies inspired by life, nature and Hawai’i. Told chronologically in order of their appearance. An easy and entertaining read with profound thoughts, based on true experiences and encounters. Whether you read one Shampoo Thought a day or the entire book in one go, you will find inspirational sparks of happiness and a fun game of Truth or Dare – both leaving space for your own revelations.
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Latest posts on the blog …
- Beety Curry for Beet Lovers
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