If you can’t “beet” ‘em, join ‘em

Hello! This is guest blogger, Farmer 1st Place (1st Place as in the street. I can only hope to one day be a 1st place, blue ribbon farmer). My only regret in moving to Brooklyn is my lack of a back yard and place to grow my own vegetables. Luckily, Farmer No.1 and Farmer No.2 are quite generous with their bounty and thus, prevent any envious thoughts I may have over their beautiful space.
This weekend, they entrusted me with lots of beets and orders to make something delicious to share at dinner that night. I’ve been really inspired by Mark Bittman’s article “101 Simple Salads for the Summer” which he wrote for his “The Minimalist” column in the NY Times. #32 on the list suggest pairing beets with corn, arugula and shallots- yum! I had also picked up some really cute sunburst/pattypan squash from the Park Slope farmers market, as well as some green peppercorn goat cheese (and we all know the love story of beets an goat cheese...). This is what came together:

I peeled and chopped the beets (red and golden!) in large chunks of equal size. I also chopped to the squash to about the same size and tossed them both in olive oil, salt and pepper. I then roasted the beets on 400 degrees. After about 15 minutes, I added the squash and cooked everything for another 40 minutes (til they seemed tender, but the beets hadn’t went to mush. While that was in the oven, I boiled 2 ears of sweet corn (also from the farmers market) and cut the kernels off. This would be even yummier if you could grill the corn, but I also think it’s perfectly acceptable to use good quality frozen corn. I mixed the three vegetables with chopped shallots and let them cool. Once they were at room temp, I mixed them, with a big handful of arugula, the crumbled goat cheese and more salt and pepper. Pretty simple and pretty darn yummy. The colors were also quite festive.(top two images by Farmer No.2, bottom two by my stupid iphone)