Pastrami-spiced beets primer

Wrapping up winter by playing with a favorite root

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Pastrami-spiced beets primer

Few things make me happier than beets.

Yes, they stain your countertop and they can, to some palates, taste a lot like dirt, but I consider those bonuses: Their rich color makes my food beautiful and makes a fantastic ink and dye. And their earthy flavor is so comforting, particularly layered with beets' sweetness and satisfying crunch.

I'm a big fan of exploring vegetable-based meat substitutes that are, well, actual vegetables, and I love finding ways to use savory flavors we typically associate with meats on earthy, rich veggies to scratch my umami itch.

While I do eat meat, I don't eat a ton of it, and tend to get my protein from other sources, but as I am an unabashed lover of all things savory, I've noticed that my cooking practice this late winter has been heavy on the umami-rich ingredients, like shoyu (soy sauce) or miso, but that I've been eager to explore some new directions.

Enter the pastrami-spiced, pickled beet. These are incredible, truly incredible, on a sandwich with some slaw or on a bed of grains. I've also taken to eating them out of the jar, always intending to eat just one but instead having to stop myself after half the container is gone.

They're such an embodiment of this season: Their rich, sweet, and hearty texture and flavor a reminder of this season's call to take a cue from the earth and take space for rest.

The warming spices feel so at home at a time when the weather is cold, but you can feel the possibility of warmer days on the horizon: A flavor both familiar and rooted in this season, but also liminal and flexible. They are, to me, a flavor that speaks to the pleasures of the moment and to my eagerness and excitement for the changes to come.

I'm not the first person on the planet to make pastrami beets, but I'm really happy with how these batches turned out, as are the friends I shared them with: enough so that the recipes are going in my next book. I've been playing with my beets in other ways, too, which you can see if you scroll to the end!