A miracle vegetable, a vitamin bomb, a pantry of useful substances - this is what the people call beets, and for good reason. The main advantage of beetroot crops is that they can retain vitamins and useful properties until the next harvest. And this is far from the only advantage. Another feature is that beets contain a unique set of nutrients, which in such a composition is not included in any of the other vegetables.
Beets are often used in cooking and are part of a fairly large number of dishes, including: salads, pickles, borscht. Stewed beets can be especially tasty. Please note that even stewed beets retain almost all nutrients and trace elements, which is especially important for the body in winter. And although it is quite easy to cook beets, you still need to know how to do it correctly.
So, the simplest, but healthy, dietary and delicious dish is beets stewed in sour cream sauce. It is the sour cream sauce that gives the dish a special aroma and piquancy. In addition, sour cream helps to give the stewed beetroot the desired consistency. For cooking, you will need the following ingredients: 2-3 beets, a large onion, 100 g sour cream, butter for sautéing, a teaspoon of flour, spices and salt to your taste.
The delicate sour cream sauce is a great addition to stews and meats, thanks to the fact that sour cream goes well with many culinary ingredients.
So, wash and peel the beetroot thoroughly. Cut the beets into strips or large cubes. Next, chop the onion and fry it in butter until a beautiful golden brown color. When the onions and beets are done, prepare the sour cream sauce. To do this, heat the flour with butter in a deep dry frying pan so that the flour does not change its color and lumps form. Bring the sour cream to a boil separately and then combine it with flour, adding salt and spices. After that, cook the sauce for no more than five minutes.
When the last ingredient is ready, combine the chopped beets, sautéed onions and hot sour cream sauce in a deep saucepan. Simmer the beets over medium heat for 15 minutes. Try it with salt. Before removing the beets from the heat, you can add spices such as bay leaves, cinnamon or cloves to the dish.
You can stew both raw and already boiled beets. If you don't have time to cook beets for a long time, you can use the following quick cooking method. Pour plenty of water over the beets and cook, uncovered, over high heat for about fifteen minutes. After that, leave the root vegetables for ten minutes under running very cold water, thereby bringing the beets to readiness. The only disadvantage of this process is the complete evaporation of vitamin C.
In order for the beets to retain their bright color when stewing, a little vinegar or lemon juice must be added to the water during the heat treatment.
Beets can be stewed in a slightly different way, without separately preparing sour cream sauce. So, wash three or four beets, peel and cut into strips. Then chop the onion and garlic clove separately. In a saucepan or deep skillet, heat a mixture of vegetable and butter, add chopped onions, beets, garlic and spices to taste there and fry a little. Then add cold boiled water to the vegetables. The water should only cover half of the beets. Simmer vegetables over medium heat until tender. When the beets are soft and pierce easily with a fork, add about 200 g of sour cream and a tablespoon of flour to the vegetables. Mix everything thoroughly and simmer over low heat for another ten minutes. If sour cream has a pronounced sourness, then during the cooking process, you can add a little sugar to the beets.
You can serve stewed beets as an independent dish or as a light side dish for any type of meat.
