Editors’ Corner
Welcome to Editor’s Corner, the (hopefully) monthly column where Ultra Vires’ Senior Editorial Board espouses their thoughts on arbitrary, yet divisive topics. This month we tackle beets.
Annecy Pang
Over the summer when I was craving my St. Lawrence Farmers Market fix, I ordered a pre-built basket of groceries from Grow, Gather & Co. It was also this basket that introduced me to the wonders of Eby Manor’s 4% chocolate milk — truly a godsend on the gloomiest of days. While I was unpacking the box, to my horror, there lay a beet.
I had no idea how to prepare this beet. Results from a quick Google search suggested roasting, pickling, or shaving onto a salad. None of those options appealed to me: beets are too earthy for my taste (both raw and roasted), and I was not ambitious enough to try pickling that day. I also didn’t want to stain my fingers, cutting boards, and apron pink. My partner suggested we add it to burgers (patties also came in the box), but I’ve only ever had canned beets in an Aussie burger (along with canned pineapple and an egg).
In the end, I let the beet sit, forgotten, in a cupboard behind some onions. Three weeks later on a trip to my parents’ place, I brought my mother the shriveled beet that she roasted and promptly froze, forgetting about it for months.
Alexa Cheung
Beets are great! They’re delicious raw in salads, marinaded, in stews, in soups, or even, if you’re feeling adventurous and extremely resourceful, as a natural dye.
My favourite way to eat them is marinated in a lemony, bright sauce, paired with a light salad. The sweetness of the beets offset the salad greens perfectly, and the red colour of the beets also provide the perfect amount of visual contrast.
And of course, beets are a cornerstone of The Office pop culture. Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica. Out of respect for Dwight Schrute and his hardworking beet-farming family members, I must give beets the culinary respect they deserve.
Adrienne Ralph
Beets taste like dirt. That’s it, that’s the take. For context: the first and only time I tried beets was on a first date — the other person ordered a beet salad, and offered me one to try. I cautiously accepted, wanting to make sure I came across as the fun, open-minded, and adventurous catch I am (someone please date me). Unfortunately, upon biting into the beet, I was met with the overwhelming taste of, well… dirt. Perhaps it was a bit of a sweet dirt, but definitely dirt. And no, I have not ever eaten a handful of dirt, but it’s just one of those things, ya know? Earthy, bitter, clear dirt vibes. Needless to say, our first date was also our last, but I did come out of it with a new red flag: liking beets.
Alisha Li
I second Adrienne’s dirt thing. In theory, beets are great — low in calories, high in fibre, versatile enough for salad or soup. But whenever I bite into one I can’t shake the feeling that I’m chomping on a clay pot.
Angela Gu
I’m an adventurous eater, but I tend towards worry-free safe options for first dates and have to say that beet salads are an ideal first date food. And I mean beet salads without any leafy greens at all: just straight-up beets with cheese and dressing. It’s the ultimate worry-free food: often already in bite-sized pieces, without anything that can get wedged between teeth, so you can focus all your attention on the conversation. Beet salads are pretty much a winter-time staple at most Toronto restaurants and bars, and I can say that they rarely disappoint.
Outside of first-date (and second-date) scenarios, I like beets in juice form (super yum with ginger) and borscht soup. My mom makes a great borscht soup with oxtail, and I trust her taste because my parents were making avocado toast a decade before it became cool. I won’t be surprised if beets get as trendy and as mainstream as kale in the near future.
Vivian Cheng
Ew. I don’t like beets, won’t go near them.
