Pink Saturday -Pickled beets

 Pink Saturday - Beverly at the blog "How Sweet the Sound" hosts Pink Saturday. Let the color pink inspire you!

Whoops! Another Pink Saturday is upon us and I got nothing!  It's been a hectic week. But Wednesday I went to the Farmers Market and bought some beets.

Pickled beets are the easiest thing in the world. First you cook your beets - and for me, the method of least resistance is roasting.

Cut off the long tails and the leaves. Save the leaves for cooking (see later!) Clean your beets under the tap, dry with a paper towel, and rub with some olive oil. Then wrap the beets in foil, and pop into a 325 degree oven for about two hours. Let them cool to room temperature.

You can forget about them. If you have an oven with automatic settings, you can pop them in before you go to sleep, have the oven turn off at the right time, and then retrieve the foil packet in the morning. Or roast them while you're at work. You can roast them while you're cooking something else.

After roasting and cooling, the beets' skin will just slip off under your fingers. Then you can slice or cut them into whatever shapes you prefer - I like thin round slices.

Cooked beets will keep in Tupperware in the fridge for several days just like they are. If you pickle them, they keep a little longer. I like to slice a white onion along with them and chop some dill, and give them a good grind of black pepper and a pink of salt. Here, I just doused them with a few good shakes of red wine vinegar.

Farmers at the market always seem to sell beets in bunches of four large or five smallish roots. That's plenty for a week's worth of salad around our house. Happy Pink Saturday!