Is This A Beetroot I See Before Me...

After handling the stalks and leaves of a bunch of beetroot yesterday, I came to the conclusion that Shakespeare is trying to tell me something from beyond the grave...Hamlet style! Or perhaps more in the style of Richard III, after all...okay, I'll stop, I mean I have finished my exam and everything.

Above: Out, damned spot! I guess it makes sense that if beetroot make your hands red, so will their stalks. If there is one thing I enjoy more than a pun it is a visual pun, and as soon as I saw my hands turn so "incarnadine" I knew that somewhere out there, Shakespeare was endorsing my continued delight in misusing his words.

Anyway -

Above:These are the intensely pink stalks of beetroot, which, with the leaves, went into my intensely healthy lunch yesterday: Noodles with Beet Greens from Nigella's How To Eat. I made this because I had noticed that our beetroot from the market was so, erm, well endowed with stalks, and didn't want to waste them, even though it had never occured to me to eat them before. A word of caution - apart from the obvious, that they stain - only use the very thin stalks, anything too thick will taste unsurmountably fibrous and woody. So: into boiled soba noodles go the steamed and wilted beet bits, followed by a few Asian flavourings.

Above: Once I got over the fact that like a panda, I was eating shoots and leaves, I really liked this. The greens (and pinks) had a strong silverbeet flavour which went well with the soy sauce I'd put in, and it was satisfyingly filling.

For dinner we had leftover pork, which I augmented with some Beetroot (waste not, want not) and Feta tarts from The Accidental Vegetarian. Well. They are incredible. I simplified the recipe somewhat, making my own pastry - smugly, I didn't even use a recipe. Well, I think pastry is justifiable to be smug about, but then maybe it's not - all you do is use flour, half its weight in butter, whizz it up, add a little water...and that's it!

I got to use some awesome little tart tins that I bought impulsively at the Food Show earlier this year (all the while telling Tim "of course I'll use them!!") The very cool thing about them is that the base lifts out of each little indentation to make it easier to lift them out.

Above: I can't believe something that dinky sprang forth from my hands.

I filled them with a mixture of roast beetroot, parboiled brocolli, feta and walnuts. Ooooooh they were good.

Above: Ooooooh. Words fail me.

I guess it goes without saying that after dinner we watched Outrageous Fortune...