Beet Marmalade

So, beet marmalade is really a thing! It's earthy, sweet and spicy. And even though it's got plenty of sugar, I bet the beety vitamins are still in there, somewhere. Spoon it on your toast points, or use it to top your crackers and soft cheese. I wonder what it would taste like on a peanut butter sandwich. Or a pork chop...?

 I was inspired to make this after finding it listed in a menu composed by Marion Cunningham in the back of  The Breakfast Book. It was paired with bannocks and served alongside scrambled eggs with ham. This menu became our Saturday morning breakfast this past weekend, which was great because I needed it to be gluten-free, and bannocks are made with (gluten-free) oats and oat flour. I'd never heard of bannocks before, and I think I need to tweak them a bit for a tad more flavor, but they were great vehicles for the marmalade and other toppings, like peanut butter. They were also really easy to make.

But this is a post about beet marmalade, so back to that.

The consistency is much like marmalade, with the little bits of citrus throughout. My favorite flavor note is the freshly grated ginger. I bet you could keep going and add cloves or cinnamon, but this is simple and great.

Here's the recipe, adapted from The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham:

Beet Marmalade
3 medium sized beets
1 1/3 c. cane sugar (you could get away with less)
1 large lemon, plus a portion of a second (see note in directions)
2 T. freshly grated ginger

Trim the beets and wrap them individually in foil. Roast them at 400 F for about an hour, or until a fork slides in easily. Unwrap them, cool them, and then peel the skins off them.

Cut the beets into chunks and place in a food processor. Pulse until they're coarsely chopped. You could also do this by hand, but you'll want to make sure that your beets are really, really tender in that case.

Place the beets in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan with the sugar, stir together and heat over medium-low. Rinse out the food processor and place a portion of a lemon in there and chop it finely, depending on the quantity of citrus bits you want in the marmalade. Juice the other lemon. (Note: I chopped half a lemon in the food processor, and then juiced the other one to make sure the marmalade had enough bite. Adjust it to your taste.) Add the lemon bits, juice and ginger to the beet mixture and stir to combine. Continue to cook over medium low for about 20 minutes, until it thickens slightly. It will get thicker when it cools. You may can this in sterilized jars to keep for a while, or just put it in a container in the fridge, where it will keep for a month or so.