Everybody Love the Grilled Beets

This year, we decided to forego making our Grilled Kickin’ Piña Colada Chicken for Memorial Day (even though we absolutely love it).  Our girls aren’t doing well with pineapple right now, and instead of pushing our luck, we are grilling up some organic boneless chicken thighs marinated in a salsa based homemade barbecue sauce.  We are also making our famous grilled beets.

We are obsessed with grilled beets like we used to be obsessed with the gulab jamun at India Pavilion.  Back when the Wendy’s Eating Fiancé and I were planning our wedding reception with the owner, he told us, “Everybody love the gulab jamun!”.  We had gulab jamun at our wedding reception for that very reason.  We still like to quote the owner sometimes, just because it’s so fun to say.  But now, you can quote me.

If everybody love the gulab jamun, then everybody love the grilled beets.  The grill has converted beet atheists into beet believers.  If the Wendy’s Eating Husband likes them, maybe your Wendy’s Eating Husband will like them too.

I couldn’t toot the horn for grilled beets without saying that grilled food is not ideal for optimal health.  High heat from the grill produces carcinogenic compounds in grilled food, and it’s particularly worse for meat.  Those blackened char marks are the worst.  To minimize the black charring, many people wrap their grilled food in aluminum foil, but this causes aluminum to leach into the food.

You have either option for grilling your beets.  Carcinogenic char marks or aluminum contamination?

We usually go for the aluminum option.  If you’re that worried about it, you could consult your naturopathic doctor to see if you can chase it down with some horsetail tea.

When grilling our beets, we like to leave a little body to them.  That is, we don’t grill them until they reach the point of mush.  The less they are cooked, the less they cause blood sugar dysregulation.  For our grill on medium heat, twenty minutes does the trick.  Depending on your grill temperature, you may need more or less time.

In case you are curious, I’ll fill you in on the rest of our Memorial Day menu.  We are also having a massaged kale salad, watermelon, and vegan black bean brownies.  Re’uth can not tolerate eggs (and neither can I), so I am converting my Cardamom Black Bean Brownies to be egg free.  They had eggs in them because I used to be able to tolerate eggs, but not anymore.

What’s on your Memorial Day menu?  Gulab jamun?  Grilled beets?

Grilled Beets

Ingredients

• 3 large beets
• extra virgin olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper

Thoroughly wash beets and cut them into 1/4″ slabs.  Drizzle with olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar.  Use a pastry brush to evenly coat each beet, or mix them together with your hands.  Generously sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Beets can be wrapped in aluminum foil or placed in a stainless steel vegetable grilling basket.  Grill on medium heat for about 20 minutes.  Grill times may vary, so monitor closely.

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