Beets Stewed in Wine (a warm beet salad)

Boy is this a tasty way to cook beets. Stewing beets in wine brings out the earthy rich flavor of the beets. I usually roast beets in the oven, however, as hot as it has been I didn’t want to heat up the kitchen so I decided to stew my beets.

So, what is stewing? Stewing is cutting small, uniform pieces of vegetables (or meat) and cooking them slowly, on a low heat, totally immersed in liquid. The slow cooking allows the liquid you are stewing the food in to penetrate and flavor the food.

You can use any flavorful liquid to stew. I used wine (red this time) and some water. I used about 1/2 and 1/2. I think if I used all wine it would have overpowered the beets. I would have used vegetable stock with the wine, but I didn’t have any. You could use just stock and no wine if you like.
I don’t really have a recipe for this, it is more a method/recipe. Use what you have and what you like.

Scrub a bunch of beets and chop them into 1-inch cubes, don’t peel them. If you have greens from the beets you can add them at the end of cooking.
In a large saucepan, combine a couple of tablespoons of butter with the beets and wine (I used red wine, you can use white – I would use white if I had gold beets) and water or stock to cover the vegetables. I added half an onion and a bay leaf too and a splash of balsamic vinegar for a little sweetness, you could use sugar or honey, but you do need a little sweetness with this dish. Bring all this to a boil. Cover and adjust the heat so the mixture simmers very gently.

Cook until the vegetables are tender, 35 or 40 minutes. When they are tender add the greens now if you are using them and cook for 3 or 4 minutes.
Strain the vegetables from the liquid and add salt and pepper to taste. I added some olive oil and some more balsamic vinegar to dress it, then toss and serve.