

You may remember staring at the bulbous purple lump on your plate as a little kid with pure disdain—beets were not for you. You’re not alone. Beets have a bad reputation as one of the most hated veggies around, but the nutritionists and dieticians at VeggieRx—a cooperative program by the Chicago Botanic Garden, Lawndale Christian Health Center (LCHC), and the University of Illinois-Chicago’s Chicago Partnership for Health Promotion (CPHP)—are showing a tastier side of beets.
VeggieRx provides boxes of produce prescribed by doctors to help patients experiencing food insecurity and diet-related diseases. The produce is grown by Windy City Harvest, the Garden’s urban agriculture program. Part of the program is to help demystify new veggies by sharing easy, delicious recipes.
“I was excited to learn different things and to get a box of veggies I don’t normally get from the grocery store,” said Jackie Sanchez, who discovered the VeggieRx program to help her husband Hector, who was diagnosed with diabetes. “Every beet I get, I pickle. Hector still doesn’t like them as much as me, but he does like the beet juice.”
Beets are an excellent source of fiber, folate, calcium, and vitamin C, making them a nutritional powerhouse. But what do you do with them?
Start off with this kale and roasted beet salad (below) that won over the Sanchezes. “I tried this recipe and it was different for me. Kale was new to us and Hector’s not crazy about it raw. We ended up sautéing the kale and liked it a lot more,” said Jackie Sanchez.
Ingredients
Directions
Fun fact: Did you know beet greens are also edible? A one-cup serving of cooked beet greens is an excellent source of vitamins A and K, potassium and magnesium, and a good source of calcium.