Of all the subjects in the kingdom of vegetables, I can't think of one whose image has been rehabilitated more completely than the beet. It wasn't terribly long ago that beets were to be found only on buffet salad bars, freed from their cans and bobbing in disturbingly purple pickle juice. You've seen it — that dank magenta pool next to the bins of shredded cheese and yellowing broccoli florets. Weirdly sweet, weirdly sour and staining everything that looked at it funny, it's the stuff of folic acid nightmares. Aside from your grandparents, who ever ate them? They were fuddy-duddy food.


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