Food & Wine: Beets

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran and today is food and wine pairing day. Have you noticed how beautiful the beets are this year? I am enjoying all of the many colors and ways of preparing them and most of all discovering the wines that work well with them. I have always been a fan of beets but this year I have prepared and been served some really great dishes featuring beets. Recently at a winemakers dinner we were served a golden beet soup that was truly delicious. It was served with a nice medium dry Riesling and it was lovely combination. I made my own version of it at home and paired it to Olsen Estates Chardonnay and it was so perfect I impressed even myself! Another great appetizer I had was a very thinly sliced orange beet with a ricotta and horseradish cream spread on top of it. It was very nice with a sweeter Riesling and also with a Prosecco bubbly wine. I like a roasted beet, just wrap the whole beet in foil and bake it in the oven until it is cooked through. Allow it to cool and the outside skin will rub right off slice it and serve it at room temperature with a salad or roasted chicken it is so good with Syrah. You can also puree beets and carrots together and they are very nice with smoked meats and Petite Verdot. An assortment of beets of varying colors is marvelous when roasted with parsnips and potatoes. I made the leftovers into a pureed soup. It was very good with Cabernet Franc. So try some of those colorful gems and see which wines you enjoy best as an accompaniment. And thanks for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.