Golden Beet Beans and Greens

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Golden Beet Beans and Greens—If you’re looking for new ways to incorporate veggies into your life, you’ll love this golden beet recipe. Made with shallots, golden beets AND their greens, and beans, this is a nutrient-dense side or main for all types of eaters. This nutritious and delicious dish is customizable to work with any root vegetable if you don’t like beets, but it truly is a delicious recipe you should try!

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I am actually not a beet lover. But I recently tried golden beets (one of my goals this year is to try a new vegetable every month) and I loved them in this recipe I made. It’s a take on the plant based favorite “beans and greens” dish. But the dominant ingredient here is the beets and man, are they good!

Golden beets are different from regular (red) beets. Regular beets have a much more earthy flavor… and some folks think they taste like dirt.

I’ve made vegan borscht when I developed my Plant Based Jewish Recipes e-book and that was fantastic. And I really do like them in my beet hummus (I do cheat and buy pre-steamed beets). But they’re not my first choice at the grocery store. I also have a post-workout recovery smoothie coming soon that hides (I mean, features) the beets wonderfully.

Golden beets have a much more mild and sweet flavor. They also won’t stain everything you own like regular beets!

I really love this golden beet recipe because it utilizes the beet greens and their stems too. This gets you more nutrients and reduces food waste!

If you really don’t want to try beets or you want to try a different spin on this dish, try switching up the beet with another root vegetable such as sweet potatoes, turnips, carrots, parsnips, etc.

If you don’t have the beet greens (they can get slimy really quickly unfortunately), you can use kale, collard greens, rainbow or Swiss chard, or turnip greens. Simply separate the stem from the leaves and follow the recipe!

Ingredients

See the recipe card below for the full ingredients list (with amounts) and instructions.

• Shallot: Such a lovely flavor! I love incorporating shallots into my raw and cooked meals.
• Beet Green Stems: We’ll separate these from the leafy part since they take longer to cook. But don’t discard them! They’ll get tender and you won’t even notice them in this delicious golden beet recipe.
• Golden Beets: I recommend giving these a good scrub, and you can peel them if you wish. I chose to peel mine because they were a little rough on the outside.
• Dried Thyme: A lovely herb for this golden beet recipe. You can use triple the amount of fresh thyme leaves, if you have them!
• Garlic: I love to add fresh garlic whenever I have it.
• Cooked White Beans: I used cooked Great Northern beans for this recipe. I usually cook my beans from dried to save money. Canned are fine, just try to find the no-salt-added kind if you can.
• Orange Zest and Juice: I love the flavor from fresh orange zest, and I don’t like bottled juice much so I squeeze fresh orange juice for this recipe. You don’t need much; the juice of 1 large juicy navel orange should suffice!
• White or Yellow Miso Paste: This is to replace the salt in the recipe, but I also love the little hint of umami flavors. Per Dr. Michael Greger of NutritionFacts.org, the soy in miso has a protective effect so the sodium in miso paste will not affect us negatively. Please feel free to omit or use a pinch of salt if that is what you prefer.
• Nutritional Yeast: This helps thicken and flavor the sauce at the end. I usually buy non-fortified nutritional yeast, but whatever you have on hand will be fine.
• Your Favorite No-Salt-Seasoning: This is just to kick up the flavor a bit at the end. I love Kirkland Organic No Salt Seasoning but you can use any you like! Lemon pepper or garlic herb are also nice choices! You could also use my umami seasoning recipe or dairy free cheese powder here too.

Substitutions

• Shallot: You could substitute half of a small yellow onion (also known as brown or Spanish onion), sweet onion, or red onion in this recipe.
• Beet Green Stems: If your beet greens don’t look too happy you can use another leafy green like kale, chard, turnip greens, or collard greens. Wash and separate the leafy bits from the stems in the same manner.
• Golden Beets: You can use red beets if you’d like, but remember they have a stronger flavor (if you like that flavor, go for it!). Other root veggies will work too, such as sweet potatoes, turnips, parsnips, or carrots.
• Dried Thyme: If you prefer to use another herb, go right ahead.
• Garlic: If you only have jarred garlic, that’s fine! And if you only have granulated garlic, use a half to full teaspoon (you can add it at the same time or at the end), to taste.
• Cooked White Beans: Any white beans (or any beans, honestly) will work well here. Butter beans would be a lovely choice, as would white navy beans, cannellini beans, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), or even cooked lentils.
• Orange Zest and Juice: You can do bottled orange juice and no zest (or store bought zest) if you don’t have fresh oranges. Lemons and their zest would also be lovely here, but I’d use a little less juice (start with 1-2 tablespoons). You can omit the citrus altogether if you prefer, but I love the brightness it adds to the recipe.
• White or Yellow Miso Paste: If you’re fine eating salt (or if you eat the potassium chloride salt substitute) you can go ahead and use that. If you are totally avoiding added sodium, you can leave it out. Maybe add a tablespoon of lemon juice or your favorite vinegar!
• Nutritional Yeast: If you hate nutritional yeast, you can omit it from the recipe. It’s not a dominant flavor at all, but I understand if you’re averse to it. Similarly, if you can’t eat it, the recipe will be fine without it.
• Your Favorite No-Salt-Seasoning: Totally optional. You can also just use your own seasonings at the end, such as granulated onion, granulated garlic, paprika, fresh cracked black pepper, etc.

How to Make Golden Beet Beans and Greens

1. Boil the beets: Add the diced beets to a pot and cover them with water (cover by about 1/2-inch). Place on the lid and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook until fork tender.
2. Sauté: When the pot of beets has little bubbles (not boiling yet), heat a large nonstick pot over medium heat for one minute. Add the shallots and the stems of the beet greens (reserve the leafy bits for later) and sauté for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently. Add a splash (about a tablespoon) of water whenever they start to stick.
3. Cook the stems: Add the thyme, garlic, and a splash of water (1-2 tablespoons). Allow to cook for 4-8 minutes, stirring frequently (and adding more water when needed), until the thickest stems are easily pierced with a fork. How long this takes depends on the thickness of your stems.
4. Add beans and leaves: Add the cooked beans, the leafy parts of the beet greens, and the orange zest and stir well. Cook for a few minutes until the greens wilt and the beans are heated through.
5. Add the beets: When the beets are easily pierced with a fork, strain out the boiling water (you can save this for smoothies and dressings) and add them to the pot. You can also do this with a slotted spoon. Stir well and heat for 1-2 minutes until everything is nicely combined. Remove from heat.
6. For serving: If you’re serving all of this immediately, you can double the “for serving” section of ingredients above. I usually split the pot in half and eat one half for my meal, and save the other half for the next day, so that’s why I wrote the recipe this way. The “for serving” is for adding fresh flavor. Mix the miso paste with the warm water, add the orange juice, and whisk in the nutritional yeast and salt-free seasoning. Add to your bowl (or double and add to the whole pot) and mix well. Serve and enjoy!
7. Storage: Allow the golden beet recipe to cool to room temperature and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. You can also freeze this dish in an airtight freezer-safe container for up to 3 months.

Expert Tips

• Servings: This recipe makes either 4 medium side-dish sized portions or 2 entree sized portions. I prefer to eat it as an entree but I left it up to you to decide how much you’d like to eat at one time.
• “For Serving” Section: The reason I have you only make enough miso sauce for 1-2 servings is because when the dish is reheated the next day, it would kill the fermentation benefits in the miso paste. So if you’re serving half the pot (whether into two smaller portions or one larger portion), use the full amounts in the “For Serving” section. If you’re intending to consume the whole pot in one night, double the “For Serving” section. And if you’re only intending to consume one quarter of the pot in one night, halve the ingredients in the “For Serving” section.
• Timing: It can be tricky to time the beets perfectly with the rest of the dish. If you’d like, you can boil them ahead of time and stick them in the fridge. Or just set them aside (off the heat) while you finish cooking the stems and they’ll be fine. If the stems are ready but the beets aren’t, add a little water and turn the heat down as far as it will go on the stems to keep them happy while the beets finish boiling.
• Add more protein: Want to add more protein and satiety? Double the beans to 2 cups!

Serving Suggestions

This golden beet recipe is wonderful as an entree or a side. I love to eat it as an entree with extra veggies, such as asparagus or broccoli on the side.

You can definitely also serve this golden beet dish as a side to any entree, such as tofu, tempeh, a baked potato, etc. Serve it with a soup like my potato and cauliflower soup or cabbage mushroom soup. It’s also a wonderful pairing with my kale sweet potato salad or kale salad with blueberries and grapes (coming soon).

More Plant Based Recipes You’ll Love

• Butter Bean Scramble
• Chickpea Tuna
• Whole Food Plant Based Potato Salad
• Creamy Mushroom Stroganoff
• Portobello Pizzas
• Bell Pepper Nachos with Edamame Guacamole and Plant-Based Nacho Cheese Sauce
• Hummus Veggie Sandwich

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