Vegetables Are For Boys

I’ve probably said this before, but Joel is not quite as into vegetables as I am. He’ll eat them, and he’ll try pretty much anything. And every once in a while, he’ll surprise me by liking something I didn’t think he would.

Case in point: the first time I made bok choy, I made only a little. He asked for seconds of “the stir fried lettuce stuff.” now we buy 2 lb tubs at Costco, and we get about two meals out of it.

As his girlfriend, I absolutely do not harbor delusions that it’s my job to make him eat his veggies, but when he eats more, I eat more. So most of the time, I stick with the ones we both like: broccoli, asparagus, artichokes, zucchini.

But I like to try new ones from time to time, and we’ve had several surprise successes. And Joel requests veggies more and more. Last week, he told me he wanted a warm salad. He also dared me to try and make him like beets, which he thought were gross.

I found some fresh beets at my farmers market last weekend and rose to the challenge.

First, I roasted the beets with olive oil, salt, and pepper. While those hung out in the oven, I chopped up shallots, kale, and the beet greens. I fried up a little bacon, and when it was done, cooked the veggies in the bacon grease with lemon juice and balsamic vinegar. Then I chopped up the bacon and threw it back in with a handful of walnuts and fresh thyme.

When everything was done, I served the roasted beets on top of the warm, fall flavored salad.