I hate beets. Or more precisely, despise them. There’s just something about their flavor; the way they stain your hands when you handle them, and their peculiar smell. A friend of mine goes a step further and says he’s actually afraid of them because they must be the  ’Devil’s Food’ (“They bleed when you cut them, look!”).

Throughout my childhood, I recall a nasty clutch in my stomach everytime there was beets at the dinner table (Mum would make her popular ‘Beetroot Curry’); there was just nothing anyone could do or say that would convince me to like them even the slightest. And it appears, I have carried this dislike with me all these years.

Perhaps it was the desire of late to change into a more ‘adult’ mindset and leave all childish hang-ups behind (having hit the big 3-oh and all), or more so, because it was that interim period in early spring when the sun is out and the birds are chirping, but chices in the produce department are rather sparse. So, out of sheer lack of choice, and a bit of bravado, I like to think, I found myself lugging home a nice, hearty bunch of red beets.

I tried to look at them in a different light, literally, and took my time taking pictures of them. Once peeled and chopped, their marbled texture ppped right out. Set against their lovely deep red, it looked gorgeous.

Even after taking to their beauty, however, I couldn’t bring myself to slide nasty little chunks of cooked beets down my throat, and so decided to puree them into an unrecognizable pulp which  could be used as an addition to something else. And so I arrived at Beet Gnocchi.

I’d cooked the beets alongwith some potatoes, and mashed them into a puree in the food processor, after which I mixed them with an egg, salt & pepper onto flour for a smooth gnocchi dough. The resultant dough was a gorgeous magenta. Making gnocchi is not only easy, but great fun. Rolling a bit each time into an oblong sausage, I cut them into little pillows and added a ridges with the tines of a fork.

After that, all that remains to do is dropping them into a pot of boiling salted water and cooking them until they rise to the top-2 to 3 minutes. The beets provide much of the flaovr, so a sauce, per say, is rather unnecessary, but coating the cooked gnocchi in a buttery base of garlic, crushed red pepper and fresh herbs gave it the perfect flavoring.

Perfect way to enjoy beets. I doubt I will ever like them, but perhaps I don’t loathe them so much now.