Baby Candy Beetroot

Description

Baby Candy Beetroot, also known as Chioggia beets, is a type of beetroot that is smaller in size and has a distinctive candy cane striped pattern on the inside. They are often used in salads and other dishes to add color and flavor.

One recipe that features Baby Candy Beetroot is Roasted Baby Beets with hazelnuts, blue cheese, and mustard by Adam Gray. This recipe uses three different varieties of beetroot (Candy, Golden, and Red) and combines them with a hazelnut and Dijon mustard dressing. The beets are roasted to bring out their sweetness and then dressed with hazelnut mustard dressing. The salad is finished with frisée lettuce, chervil, blue cheese, and chopped hazelnuts.

Another recipe that features Baby Candy Beetroot is Roasted Baby Beets from Epicurious. This recipe simply roasts the beets to bring out their sweetness and then dresses them with butter and fresh rosemary. The recipe suggests using Candy cane beets if you can find them at a farmer’s market, but also suggests using a medley of red and yellow beets if baby beets are unavailable.

Candy beets (aka candy cane beets, Chioggia beets) are a special variegated variety with alternating concentric red & white rings. Baby candy beets are each roughly the size of a golf ball. Though they can be cooked as you would other beet varieties, candy beets are best used raw so the red color doesn’t bleed into the white rings.

Beets, or Beta vulgaris, are a root vegetable that comes in many different varieties. Some of the most popular beet varieties include Avalanche, Bull’s Blood, Chioggia, Crosby Egyptian, Cylindra, Detroit Dark Red, Early Wonder, Forono, Golden, Golden Detroit, Lutz Green Leaf, Merlin, Moulin Rouge, Red Ace, Red Ball, Ruby Queen, Touchstone Gold and White Detroit¹.

Classic deep-red beets are the most common type. Their color is the result of a pigment called betalain. While betalain makes red (along with golden) cultivars the healthiest choices of all, it is also responsible for that hearty taste that either excites or repels those who dine on this vegetable. Golden varieties are more mild and sweet and have a less “earthy” flavor. Though they’ve become common in some markets, golden beets remain a real novelty to some – and they serve as an exciting vegetable to grow and add to the dinner table! Do keep in mind that you will have to sow seeds of golden varieties heavily. Of all of the available cultivars, goldens tend to have the lowest germination rates.

Compared to their scarlet kin, striped cultivars have a bright pink to pale red skin on the outside. When you slice them open, you’ll find that the flesh is brightly mottled with vivid pink rings or stripes on white flesh, much like a bull’s-eye or peppermint swirl. White varieties are a popular heirloom gem found in CSA boxes and on market tables. White beets are the mildest, sweetest, and least earthy-tasting of all because they lack betalain, the compound responsible for the pink and yellow pigments found in red and golden varieties.