Beets are pretty common but the beet greens are often forgotten. Beet greens are healthy, delicious and easy to prepare.

Most of us are familiar with beets but not everyone knows beet greens. Beets are a root vegetable. They produce a leafy green that is edible. The greens are reddish to purply green.  In southern Ontario and similar climates, you can get them at your local farmer's market.

Some people remove the stalks. They are thick. However, they are quite tasty if you cut them up. Sometimes they are too thick and woody tasting. If they are woody, they should be discarded. Beet greens can be eaten raw but they are tastiest boiled or steamed.

Wash beet greens thoroughly. They can often be sandy. If there are very small beets on the end of your beet greens, they can be eaten. You may want to cut off the root. Cook the little beets with the beet greens. Beet greens can be cooked like spinach. Beet greens will render down a lot. So if you have a lot of raw beet greens, expect them to become around half of their volume when they are steamed or boiled. If you steam them, make sure to move them around a bit when you are steaming them. They are dense and sometimes the middle section of greens won't get steamed.

If you have a favorite spinach recipe, you can substitute the spinach with beet greens. Anywhere you use steamed or boiled spinach, use beet greens. However, if you usually chop spinach up, you may want to chop up your beet greens. For example, if you are doing a dish like beet green stuffed spinach with pine nuts and mushrooms, you are going to want to chop up the beet greens so they are small.

Try beet greens as a pizza topping. Chop up beet greens. Chop the stems so they are no more than one inch long. Steam beet greens until cooked through. Season with salt and black pepper. Put on your pizza in little clumps. Beet greens go well with caramelized onions and roasted garlic. For one large pizza, do two or three large cooking onions. Red onions don't caramelize very well. Roast one bulb of garlic. Smash the cloves on the pizza.

If you don't want to use your beet greens as a pizza topping, try it in pasta. Use it the same way as the pizza with lots of roasted garlic and caramelized onions. Or, make a spinach and ricotta lasagna but replace the spinach with beet greens. Cut the stems into very small bite size pieces. If you want you can mix spinach with beet greens for a different lasagna. Or, make your favorite noodles. Steam beet greens and place in your favorite pasta sauce. Tomato sauce works well. Garlic-tomato sauce is also very yummy. Use a good amount of beet greens. Chop them so when you are eating them, you don't get a huge lump of them that you need to cut with a knife.

Crepes are an elegant dinner. Steam beet greens. Serve in a crepe with cheese sauce. Again, chop up the beet greens and the stems so they are all manageable, bite-sized pieces. This is a very tasty dinner that you can easily serve for company. If your beet greens are ready ahead of time, don't warm them up or you will just overcook them. Instead make the cheese sauce very hot.

Use beet greens in your favorite egg dish. Try them in quiche Florentine, your classic spinach quiche. Replace the spinach with beet greens. Try beet greens in an omelet, in a strata or in a frittata. You may not want to use the stems of the beet greens. By not using beet green stems, it will make your egg dish taste smoother and will give it a more consistent texture.

Beet greens make a fantastic side dish. Serve steamed or boiled beet greens with butter, salt and pepper. They are very flavorful. Even if you don't like beets, give beet greens a try. They are quite different than beets. If the leaves are wilted or turning yellow, they aren't very good anymore. They should be stored in the fridge and will last about a week. If you don't go through them very fast, clean the beet greens, Chop them up finely. Steam them. Drain all the water from them that you can. Freeze them in bags. They should keep for about 6 months.

Beet greens are low in saturated fats and cholesterol. Beet greens contain vitamins A, C, E, K and B6. These leafy greens contain minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, copper and mangan. They are also high in protein, folate, pantothenic acid, phosphorus and zinc. Beet greens also are a terrific source of dietary fiber. Unfortunately, they are very high in sodium. If you already have a high sodium intake, you may want to eat a limited amount of beet greens.