Beets are a nutrient-packed food that deserved the adjective “super” long before “superfoods” became a marketing term. Packed with antioxidants and loaded with flavour, organically grown beet is a wonderful, diverse addition to your table.
Bright purple beets are popular internationally for their colour, flavour, nutritional power punch and adaptability, used raw grated, spiralised, boiled, baked or air-fried as chips. For relatively few calories, they are bursting with nutrients.
Beetroot belongs to the same family as spinach and chard with both the root vegetable and the leaves edible and nutritious. The green leaves are high in calcium, iron and vitamins A and C. Beetroot is a dependable source of folic acid, fibre, manganese and potassium.
The pigment that gives beetroot its deep, rich colour is betacyanin, a powerful antioxidant that fights free radicals in the body and is thought to boost the immune system.
Fitness fuel
Nitrates have been shown to improve sporting performance and lower blood pressure naturally. Dietary nitrates are converted to nitric oxide in the body, which dilates blood vessels and leads to a temporary (approximately six-hour) reduction in blood pressure.
Beetroot juice consumed prior to athletic activity has been proved to extend performance time prior to fatigue with an overall 1–2 per cent improvement in high-intensity exercise. For elite athletes, this can provide a significant competitive advantage.
Eating beetroot also improves cycling and athletic performance by increasing the efficiency of oxygen use in the body.
Blood nitrate levels peak within 2–3 hours of consumption, so beetroot juice should be consumed within this timeframe prior to competing or training.
The market for beetroot
Kane Busch from Busch Organics in Mitchell River Flats, Lindenow, in East Gippsland has been growing organic beets since 2000: “As we have beetroot for 10 months of the year, we ride the fluctuating market price to give us an average return. We market our not-so-perfect beetroot to processors.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Issue #25 2019 من Eat Well.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Issue #25 2019 من Eat Well.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
ARE YOU TO FU enough?
Love it or hate it, everyone has an opinion about tofu. Tofu is a very popular plant-based protein for vegans and vegetarians, but now this humble bean curd is starting to shine for meat lovers too as an alternative source of protein.
Sweet TRAYBAKES
Whether you want to feed a group of people or make a batch of treats for the week, traybaking is a no-fuss way to cook up something sweet and easy that will please everyone. Your family and friends will love you when you offer them some of our: cinnamon scrolls; fruity chocolate; espresso brownies; lemon & coconut slice; or ginger cake with brown butter frosting.
ROLL UP
When you roll food, whether in Lebanese bread, a thin pancake or whatever you choose, you can create a parcel of nutrition that is perfectly suited to your own tastes and needs. Here are some roll-up recipes that will suit every occasion including: mango, snow pea, & sprout rice paper rolls; oat crepes with coconut yoghurt & mixed berries; or beef meatball & tzatziki flatbreads.
RICE BOWL Lunches
If you are working from home, or even enjoying your weekend, and lunchtime rolls around but you have no plans for lunch, then a rice bowl is an ideal saviour.
PLANT-BASED PIES
Pies are a piece of gastronomic brilliance: a filling with a case and lid you can eat is food genius. The first pies date back to Egyptian times and there is a recipe for chicken pie that was carved into stone more than 4000 years ago. For millennia, however, the pie casing was mostly used to cook the filling, but for around 500 years or more we have been eating the pie crust too.
20 FOOD CRAVING HACKS
Decipher the deeper causes of your cravings and discover tricks to curtail them.
Eggplant (Solanum melongena L)
Eggplant is a wonderful option for vegans and vegetarians, extremely nutritious and highly versatile in the kitchen.
5 PANTRY SAVIOURS
Whether you're cooking a simple breakfast or something more exotic, here are five pantry food staples you should have on hand to cook plenty of delicious meals in the comfort of your own home.
Cucumber (Cucumis sativus)
Cucumbers are delicious fresh but they also offer plenty more options in the kitchen.
Our Chefs
Meet the chefs who bring this issue's recipes to you: Lisa Guy, Georgia Harding, Lee Holmes, Sammy Jones, Raquel Neofit, Naomi Sherman and Ames Starr.
