By Diana Earnshaw
Two of our oldest and much loved vegetables, beetroot and cauliflower lend themselves to many recipes.
Beetroot
How do you like them? Hot as a vegetable? Cold in sandwiches or maybe in vinegar to add to a salad? These are the usual ways to prepare beetroot, but there are so many other ways! Beetroot has lots of nutrients to commend it. There is a plethora of antioxidants and it is thought that the presence of glycine betaine in beets, lowers homocysteine levels which can reduce some of the risks for cardio vascular disease. There are many of the B vitamins including folate and there are small amounts of vitamins A and C. Minerals include copper, manganese, iron and magnesium.
The recipes below show how versatile beetroot can be.
Cauliflower
Cauliflowers are also very versatile. We all love cauliflower cheese – a real winter comfort food! We also use raw florets as crudités and just cooked as a vegetable accompaniment. Have you tried roasting cauliflower florets? They are delicious in a mixed vegetable roast.
There are lots of nutrients in cauliflower, including the antioxidant sulforaphane. This is now known to be a powerful anti-cancer agent and is particularly effective against prostate, breast, cervical, colon and ovarian cancers.
There are many of the B vitamins, vitamin K1 (for effective blood clotting) and vitamin C – especially in raw cauliflower. They also contain a good range of minerals including manganese, copper, iron and calcium.