Beets with Garlic, Yogurt and Cheese Crust (Au Gratin) – A Guest Post!

Tags

au gratin, beet, beet greens, beetroot, cheese, egg, Greek yogurt, vegetables, vegetarian, yogurt

Well, it’s done. The new blog is up. The Foodie Corner is live! Would you like to take a look? Yes it will all be Greek to you, but I’d love to hear what you think of the site!
 
Now I said I would try my best to keep Spaghetti going, and I will. And a few weeks ago I had a brainwave. Why not ask my friend and fellow blogger Artemis from Wonderfoodland, to step in with a guest post? She is the first Greek food blogger I ever met in person, and we clicked right away. I love her blog (which by the way is bilingual); from the recipes that always have a bit of a twist to them and her writing that discreetly reflects her wicked sense of humour, all the way to her gorgeous photos (putting mine to shame right here…). She has really come up with the goods here. This recipe is feeling right at home on On Top Of Spaghetti. So, enjoy!

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There is this thing.
When I’m invited to write a guest post by another food blogger, I’m a little bit anxious.
What will it be?
Will my recipe “fit” properly into another blog?
Will the fellow blogger like it?
Will her/his readers like it too?
What do I have to write?

In this case, I guess my recipe choice was easy: Eleni is a beet lover. I know that. I’ve seen that. I’ve tasted that. I could never forget her beet chocolate brownies at the Food Revolution Day picnic.

My writing thing was easy also: I was lucky to get to know Eleni before her food blog adventures. And I’m really glad to know that another one follows her daring heart and does what she loves; cooking, writing, shooting, styling, sharing, communicating -not only through web and not only with food bloggers- but with anyone out there who loves food. In any way.

And I was really excited to see her beautiful “newborn”, The Foodie Corner, coming to life at last!

So, here I am, writing about beets myself too, finding the chance to get experimental and cooking something else rather than boiling them one more time!

These beets are for you, my dear Eleni!

Beets with Garlic, Yoghurt and Cheese Crust (Au Gratin)

Adapted recipe by Aglaia Kremezi

Ingredients

1 kg beets (leaves and half of the roots. The rest of the boiled beetroots eat them with some nice balsamic vinegar and olive oil)
2 Tbs all purpose flour
3 Tbs of olive oil + extra for greasing the baking dish
1 ½ cup milk (any kind of milk you love)
1 cup yoghurt (any kind of yoghurt you love)
3 garlic cloves mashed
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 ½ cup grated cheese (use any kind of cheese you love that melts. I used a mix of several leftovers -Greek gruyere, gouda and kasseri, a yellow melty cheese)
3 stale slices of bread processed into crumbs (or rusk crumbs which is what I used)
salt, pepper

Instructions

1. Clean the beets: remove any not-so-good looking leaves, cut the roots from the leaves, cut the small “nose” of each beet on its other end and put them all into water baths to get washed very well -at least 3 water baths. Strain them and leave them aside.
2. Put a big pot full of water on to boil. When the water boils, put the beets in (leaves and roots). The leaves will boil quicker than roots, so in about 5 minutes check the leaves out. If they’re soft enough, take them out, but leave the roots in until they get soft too. Drain them, squeeze them (the leaves) with a fork to get most of their liquids out and set them aside.
3. Prepare the light béchamel: into a small pan, pour the 3 Tbs of olive oil on medium heat. Add the flour and start stirring quickly with a whisk until it gets slightly brown.
4. Add milk and keep stirring quickly on low heat. When it turns into a nice cream, remove it from heat and add garlic, salt and pepper. Stir well.
5. Add yoghurt, eggs and cheese too while still stirring well.
6. Preheat the oven to 200 C. Grease a baking dish that will fit the beets in a not very thin layer. I used several small baking dishes (one portion each).
7. Chop the beet leaves a little bit and the roots to very small cubes like dice. Mix half of the cream with the chopped beets (leaves and roots).
8. Spread breadcrumbs all over the dish, add the beets all over and cover with the other half of the cream.
9. Bake for about 30 minutes or until you get a golden crust. When baked, leave to rest for about 15-20′ before serving.