If you're looking for a festive new side dish to spice up your holiday dinner, look no further. Everyone loves classic mashed potatoes with their Holiday Roast, but why not elevate them to the next level by adding in roasted beets? Roasted beets add the perfect touch of caramelized sweetness. They are much healthier than starchy white potatoes: containing high amounts of iron, fiber, and antioxidants. Most importantly your mashed potatoes instantly become bright PINK...like you need any more reasons than that alone!!
Every other week we get a delivery of seasonal, locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables from Kula Fields, an organic farm in upcountry Maui. We love guessing what will be in the box that week and challenging ourselves to concocting new recipes with what produce we are given...its like our own little Chopped challenge. The other week we received these amazing beets. I love how a beet is so ugly on the outside but when you peel away the skin you discover a beautiful gem. A classic "don't judge a book by its cover" example. I mean have you ever seen a prettier vegetable than this?
Not only are they pretty and colorful, beets also couldn't be easier to prepare. Just peel away the skin like you would an ordinary potato, chop them into smallish pieces, bundle them in foil, and pop in the oven until tender. I like to roast them until they can just be pierced with a fork but not too soft; this way they will maintain a little bit of their texture when mashed. You want your guests to know they are eating beets in their mashed potatoes, not that you just got carried away with food dye to pretty up your potatoes!
Once your beets are roasted, just add them into your ordinary mashed potato ingredients. I used boiled russet potatoes, garlic, sour cream, milk, salt and pepper, and of course some butter. There's no such thing as mashed potatoes without butter. But the sour cream and garlic are necessary as well because they add a nice tang to balance out the sweetness of the beets.
On a side note, I do have to add that I was one happy girly girl when I realized my mashed potatoes matched my hand mixer :)
This mash is a great way to disguise healthy vegetables to your picky kids; they will be just so excited to eat a mountain of pink fluff on their plate to realize their is yucky beets inside. Its also a fun dish to surprise your guests with this Holiday season. But this recipe is not just for show... I promise you will love the depth of flavor and texture that roasted beets adds to your basic mashed potatoes.
Roasted Beet Mashed Potatoes
3 large white Russet potatoes
2 medium size beets
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
4-5 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 375. Peel skin off beets and chop into small pieces. Place beets in an aluminum foil pouch on top of a cookie sheet and roast under tender enough to be pierced easily with a fork but not too soft to lose their texture entirely, about 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, boil potatoes on the stove until tender. Using a hand mixer, whip the potatoes with the garlic, butter, sour cream, milk, and salt and pepper. Use more or less butter and milk until potatoes reach desired consistency. Mix in the beets afterwards, just enough to incorporate and whip up but not too much to lose the chunky mash consistency.
