Beet tops: preparations for the winter, the best cooking recipes with photos and videos

Beet tops are perceived by most gardeners as a waste that must be removed after harvest. In fact, green leaves are a valuable source of nutrients, and they can be used as a raw material for preservation. To get delicious preparations for the winter, just find out what recipes with beet tops exist.

Composition and benefits of beet tops

Beetroot belongs to the universal types of horticultural crops, as leaves and root crops are used for food. Several centuries ago, only tops were used for food, and the underground part was intended only for medical purposes.Today the situation is exactly the opposite and, basically, roots are used for food, and the leaves, at best, go to feed livestock. This situation deprives a person of a valuable source of vitamins and nutrients.

The composition of beet tops contains a large amount of vitamins, it contains folic acid, which is necessary during the period of conception and childbearing. When using leaves, a person is able to fill the body with a huge list of chemical elements, including phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, iodine and zinc.

Doctors advise including beet tops in the diet if you have the following problems:

• pathologies of the cardiac system;
• violation of elasticity and patency of blood vessels;
• malfunctions of the endocrine system;
• anemia, problems with blood composition;
• gastric ulcer, gastritis.

Regular use of tops contributes to the normalization of metabolism and improves blood circulation, which favorably affects a person's well-being. Due to the presence of choline in the composition of greenery, positive changes in the functioning of the liver are observed, since the active element prevents the formation of fatty formations.

Improve the digestive system due to pectin, which blocks the action of harmful intestinal bacteria.

Winter preparations are an excellent substitute for fresh herbs, which allow you to get a valuable product in the cold period, a person gains the opportunity to enrich the diet with tasty and he althy dishes at any time. Canned beet greens can be used as an appetizer, addition to side dishes, as a dressing for soups, or as a salad ingredient.

Preparing the main ingredients

For salads and fresh use, it is recommended to pick early leaves, as they become tough during the harvest period. The blank can also be made from late tops, but at the same time, heat treatment is carried out to soften it. For harvesting choose cloudy weather without rain. If the vegetables were fed with nitrates, then you need to cut off 5 centimeters of the cutting at the base, it is in this place that their accumulation is observed.

After harvesting, the leaves are thoroughly washed, excess debris and greens are removed with obvious signs of damage. To facilitate the process, you can put the tops in a bowl of water for a couple of minutes, all small specks and light foreign objects will float up, so they will be easy to remove.

Recipes for preparing blanks for the winter

Today, there are many options for using beet tops. Often gardeners use fresh herbs in salads, add to soups. No less common is the method of drying leaves and freezing them. To preserve the qualities of the plant in winter, apply:

• fermentation;
• pickling;
• canning.

When choosing a cooking recipe, it should be borne in mind that heat exposure reduces the value of the product. At the same time, hot preservation methods provide beet tops with the longest possible storage.

Borscht dressing

Preparing a dressing for borscht is easy, and in the future, its use significantly saves the cooking time of the soup. The blank can be used not only as an ingredient in a dish, but also as a regular salad.

The recipe involves the use of the following components:

• beets - 1 kilogram;
• water - 200 milliliters;
• tops - 500 grams;
• onions, heads - 1 kilogram;
• carrot - 1 kilo;
• tomatoes - 1 kilo;
• s alt - 1.5 tablespoons;
• sugar - 1 tablespoon;
• vinegar 70% - ½ teaspoon.

The sugar and s alt content of the recipe needs to be adjusted as beets and tomatoes can vary in sweetness and acidity. The type and shape of cutting vegetables are chosen depending on their own preferences, in most cases, they choose the shape of slices or cubes.

First, pour a little sunflower oil into the pan, fry the carrots and onions until the vegetables become soft. After that, beets are added, water is added and stewed for 15 minutes. Tomatoes, sugar are introduced and kept in the stewing mode for another 10 minutes. S alt, vinegar are added and the mixture is thoroughly mixed, keeping on fire until the beets are ready. Last add the tops, leaving to languish for 5 minutes.After boiling, the mixture is laid out in sterilized jars.

Canned red beet tops

Beetroot leaves, for further use in borscht, can be cooked in just a few minutes, so the method is called "five minutes". The leaves are cut, tightly packed in jars and poured with hot saline.

S alt and sugar are used to taste, the standard is the proportion when 1 liter of water is used in proportions of 2 to 1 and vinegar is added in the amount of ½ teaspoon. Canning involves sterilizing jars for 5 minutes. Vinegar is added to the containers just before they are closed.

Marinated leaves, petioles

You can marinate beet leaves and cuttings. Since the structure of the parts of the plant is different, different processing of raw materials is assumed. For a recipe for 1 jar of 0.5 liters you will need:

• petioles 250 grams or 200 grams of beet leaves;
• s alt - 1 teaspoon;
• sugar - 0.5 teaspoons;
• garlic - 1 clove;
• horseradish - 2 centimeters;
• fragrant, black pepper - 5 and 10 pieces each;
• vinegar 70% - 1 ml.

Stalks are harvested using the triple pour method, that is, the hot marinade is poured, drained, boiled and re-filled 3 times. The leaves are prepared by sterilization, that is, the hot marinade is poured into jars and containers, boiled in water for 5 minutes. The blanks buried with lids are turned over and wrapped in a warm blanket.

Sauerkraut

The method involves the use of haulm stalks. The recipe requires the following ingredients:

• stems - 1 kilo;
• garlic - 1 piece;
• s alt - 1 tablespoon per liter of water;
• lavrushka - 2 leaves;
• pepper - 10 peas.

The stems are poured over with boiling water and tightly placed in jars, sliced garlic and peppercorns are placed between the layers, s alt is poured out. If you want to get the finished product in a week, then the workpiece is poured with boiling water, kept at room temperature for 2 days and put in the refrigerator. If poured with cold water and stored in a cold cellar, the result is achieved in 3 weeks.

In Armenian

Armenian-style beet tops are called “borani”. Prepared from the following products:

• beet tops - 1 large bunch;
• onion - 1 head;
• garlic - 1 clove;
• s alt, herbs, sour cream added to taste;
• butter.

Finely chopped onions are sautéed in oil, achieving a golden hue. After that, chopped tops are added and stewed under a closed lid for 15 minutes, s alted and peppered, in the process it is required to periodically mix the mixture. Prepare the sauce by mixing chopped garlic with sour cream and thoroughly whisking with herbs. The dish is served at the same time as the dressing.

S alting

S alting allows you to keep the tops with the maximum content of nutrients and vitamins. To do this, green leaves are cut and laid in dense layers of 2 centimeters in transparent containers, alternating with s alt. For the recipe, you need to take coarse grinding without iodine content If the tops are too rough and tough, then it is preliminarily doused with boiling water and waited for drying.

The blank for storage is removed in the refrigerator and used directly in the preparation of the dish. To eliminate the risk of high s alt content in the finished dish, it is recommended to first add dressing, and only then, if necessary, add additional s alt.

Freeze

An excellent alternative to traditional dressings is the freezing method. The advantage of this option is the minimum required time, the possibility of long-term storage and preservation of useful substances, which is associated with the absence of thermal exposure. You can freeze the product in the following ways:

• in plastic bags;
• tanks;
• in the form of ice cubes.

Bag storage is the most common choice for product preservation, as it requires minimum time and allows large volumes of raw materials to be processed quickly.

Washed beet tops are poured with boiling water before freezing, which makes it softer and more pliable. After drying, the greens are laid out in bags, from which excess air is removed. This action will provide better storage of the product and will save space in the freezer.

Beet greens can be stored separately from other greens or mixed with herbs. Good "partners" for her are parsley and dill. This storage option is ideal for making soup dressings, as it allows you to form portion bags or cubes for 1 use.

Snack from haulm

You can roll up beet stalks with pepper, this combination will be a great appetizer to the table. If the tops are tender, then it is not necessary to treat the stems with boiling water. Rigid shoots are doused with hot water or boiled for 1 minute. For the recipe you will need:

• tops - 0.6 kilograms;
• s alt - 1.5 teaspoons;
• wine vinegar 6% - 60 milliliters;
• garlic - 3 cloves;
• sweet pepper - 3 pieces.

The stalks are cut into 10 centimeters in size and placed in sterilized containers with sliced pepper, adding garlic evenly. It is not worth ramming the layers too tightly. S alt is added on top. Water is heated to a state of boiling water and carefully poured into the jar to the level of the shoulders. Vinegar is added and sterilized for 10 minutes, after which they are closed with lids and sent to cool.

How to properly store blanks

Prepared delicious preservation can be considered half the work done, but it is equally important to preserve the preparations in the winter. The average shelf life of closed jars is considered to be 1 year, but the presence of a preservative in the form of vinegar can increase this period.

You can store containers in the refrigerator, but, in most cases, cellar conditions are chosen, since a large number of cans can be stored in such a room. The key to long-term storage is the tightness of containers and the temperature regime, which for preservation should be from 3 C to 15 C.

Before sending to the cellar, you should check the jars for leaks, the containers with the workpiece are removed when droplets appear. Such tops can be used for immediate consumption. The second time it is not rolled up, because during repeated heat treatment it loses its qualities, and the absence of such a procedure will not allow for long-term storage of the workpiece.

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