Top: The secret ingredient is popped
mustard seeds. Photo courtesy Samin
Nosrat. Bottom: Serve either recipe with
homemade pita wedges. Photo courtesy
The Pioneer Woman.

Our supermarkets are filled with cooked, packaged, ready-to-eat beets brought in for Valentine’s Day. While we love fresh-roasted beets, they’re the most time-consuming root vegetables to prepare.

We got the message. We’re using the pre-cooked beets to make Valentine dips and spreads. If you want to roast your own, we salute you.

This recipe, by California chef and author Samin Nosrat, is adapted from one published on BonAppetit.com (and further adapted by us). We received it from Good Eggs in San Francisco, an outstanding grocery delivery service.

Good Eggs recommends it as an addition to a composed salad, a spread for a cheese board or a tangy addition to a sandwich. “Once you start stirring popped mustard seeds into your savory cooking, you’ll never stop,” they assure us.

RECIPE #1: MASHED BEETS WITH MUSTARD SEEDS

Ingredients For 2 Cups

 
Preparation

1. HEAT a small pan over medium heat for a minute. Pour in enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan, then add the mustard seeds. Swirl the pan until the mustard seeds begin to pop, cover the pan so the seeds don’t escape, and reduce the heat to low. After about 30 seconds, you’ll hear the popping slow down.

2. REMOVE the pan from the heat and let the seeds cool, uncovered, for a minute or two. Cut the beets into large chunks and place them in the bowl of a food processor, along with the garlic. Blend until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed. You can use a potato masher if you prefer it to a food processor: The mashed beets will be a much rougher texture (like hand-mashed potatoes) but still fine for all purposes.

3. ADD the popped mustard seeds, yogurt, a big squeeze of lemon juice, and some salt. Taste and adjust the seasoning as desired.

RECIPE #2: BEET YOGURT DIP, SPREAD OR TOPPING

This is the yogurt to whip up for Valentine’s Day. You can make it with any color of beets, but save the orange and yellow for another occasion and use red beets. You can make the recipe a day in advance.

Use beet yogurt as a dip, a spread, or as a topping—for baked potatoes, cottage cheese, grains, veggies, sandwiches, etc.

Ingredients For 6 Servings

A very romantic dish of yogurt. Photo courtesy Good Eggs | San Francisco.

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*If you don’t like the licorice notes in tarragon, substitute basil or chervil.
 

Preparation

If you want to roast your own beats, follow the first three steps. Otherwise, skip to Step 4.

1. PREHEAT the oven to 450°F.

2. SCRUB and trim the beets, but leave the skins on. Place them in a small baking pan or casserole and fill it with 1/2″ hot water. Sprinkle with salt, cover with a piece of parchment paper, and then cover dish tightly with foil.

3. ROAST the beets until tender, about 1 hour. Remove them from the baking pan and let them cool until they are comfortable to grasp. Then, using a paper towel, rub off the skins.
 
4. GRATE the beets coarsely with a box grater, Microplane or the grating disc of a food processor. Blend with the yogurt, mint, tarragon, olive oil, and vinegar. Taste and season with salt and vinegar as desired.

5. COVER and chill the yogurt for 3 hours or overnight for the flavors to meld.
 
RECIPE: TOASTED PITA WEDGES

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. CUT each pita round into 6 wedges and place them on a baking sheet. Brush lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt as desired.

2. BAKE for 5 minutes or until crisp.
  

Top: Yogurt and “Valentine fruit” for breakfast. Center: Smoked salmon for more sophisticated palates. Photos and recipes courtesy Siggi’s Dairy, producer of artisan yogurt. Bottom: “Valentine toast.” Photo courtesy SmellOfRosemary.Blogspot.com.

Following our recent article on chocolate pancakes for Valentine’s Day, one reader tweeted, “Got anything for health-conscious eaters that fits into the schedule of a busy working mom?”

Beth, this one’s for you and the kids. You can easily make one or both recipes.

RECIPE #1: FRUIT SKEWERS WITH VANILLA YOGURT DIP

Ingredients Per Serving

 
Plus

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the yogurt and honey in a bowl; mix well and set aside.

2. CUT the fruit with a small heart-shaped cookie cutter. Assemble the skewers, using grapes and/or raspberries between the hearts as desired.
 

RECIPE #2: SMOKED SALMON & DILLED YOGURT

Ingredients Per Serving

 
Plus

 
_________________________________
*Cut a thin wheel of lemon, then cut the circle into quarters.
 
Preparation

1. CUT the smoked salmon into large but bite-size pieces.

2. BLEND the yogurt and dill, seasoning with salt and pepper as desired.

3. SCOOP the yogurt into a bowl and top with the smoked salmon.

4. GARNISH as desired and serve.

VALENTINE TOAST

Make heart-shaped whole wheat toast with a heart-shaped cookie cutter of any size.

Toast both the original slice of bread and the cut-out heart.
  

We love this idea from Sugar Bowl Bakery: strawberry skewers with marshmallows and brownie bites.

They’re quick and easy to put together. Let the kids do it as their contribution to Valentine’s Day.

WHAT YOU NEED

 
Preparation

1. REMOVE the stems and leaves from the strawberries; wash and pat dry. Slice off the tapered bottoms so there will be a flat edge against the brownie bites and marshmallows.

2. CUT the brownies in a size that matches the marshmallows. Squares are O.K., but circles cut with a small cookie cutter are better.

3. ASSEMBLE: Place strawberries on each end of the skewer, with a marshmallow and brownie bite in-between.

[2] Savory chocolate gazpacho with strawberries from Good To Know. Here’s the recipe (photo © Good To Know).

Chef Mat Schuster of San Francisco’s Canela Bistro & Wine Bar offered us this Chocolate Gazpacho recipe, which we like for Valentine’s Day. It’s a savory chocolate counterpoint to all the sweet stuff.

When most people think of savory chocolate dishes, Mexican mole comes to mind. You may have made a chili recipe with cocoa powder. It’s a popular ingredient in Mexican dishes.

(And why not? Cacao cultivation was begun by the Olmecs, the first major civilization in Mexico, located in the present-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco; and furthered by the Mayas of the Yucatán Peninsula. When the Aztecs learned about cacao from the Mayas, they made it a drink for noble or wealthy Aztecs and their warrior heroes).

If you’ve ever had an all-chocolate dinner (chocolate used in every dish), you know that it can be included in every course, from cacao nibs in the salad to cacao chèvre for the cheese course. Here are more examples, with the recipes available at Saveur.com.

 
 
RECIPE: SAVORY CHOCOLATE GAZPACHO

Ingredients

and/or croutons†

Preparation

1. PLACE all ingredients into a blender; blend until smooth.

2. ADD enough water to make the consistency you prefer, but be sure not to dilute the flavor.

3. TASTE, season with salt and pepper and chill the soup. Before serving, garnish as desired.
 
 
WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT CHOCOLATE?

Take a look at our Chocolate Glossary and other articles in THE NIBBLE’S Chocolate Section.

 
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*Picada is a Catalan-style pesto made with almonds, parsley and chocolate.

†These can be American-style croutons—small squares—or French croutons/Italian crostini, slices of baguette or similar bread, grilled or toasted with olive oil, seasonings (herbs, spices, salt and pepper) and/or optional toppings (for this gazpacho recipe, try fresh goat cheese and chives). You can float it on top of the soup or serve it on the plate under the bowl.
 
 

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It’s very rich, a kind of “French cheesecake.”

Others serve a cheese course with their favorite cheeses.

Still others assemble a plate of delicious heart-shaped cheeses. If you’d like to do the same, head to the best cheese stores in town. They’re certain to offer a few limited edition, heart-shaped delights for the big day.

You can find both domestic heart-shape cheeses like Amour from Coach Farm, a semisoft, bloomy-rinded goat cheese made in New York State; and imports like Godminster Cheddar from the U.K.

Others you may find include:

 
Plus these three bloomy-rinded goat cheeses from Oregon’s River Edge Chèvre:

 
THE HISTORY OF HEART-SHAPED CHEESE

Heart-shaped cheeses are not a recent invention for Valentine’s Day (the history of Valentine’s Day). They originated more than 500 years ago in the little town of Neufchâtel-en-Bray, in the Haute Normandy region of France.

Most of the maidens in town worked as milkmaids and cheese makers. When some fell in love with the occupying British soldiers during the Hundred Years War (1337-1453), they started to produce heart shapes from the local soft cheese (Neufchâtel), to give as gifts to their sweethearts.

Note that American Neufchatel is very different from its French namesake. In the U.S. it is a name given to a lower-fat type of cream cheese.
 
THE VALENTINE CHEESE PLATE

Decorate the plate with fresh raspberries and strawberries or a scattering of pomegranate arils.

Top: This gorgeous cheese and charcuterie plate from Flora Artisanal Cheese in Charlottseville, Virginia has pink, purple and red color accents that are spot-on for Valentine’s Day. Center: An aged Coeur De Bray Neufchâtel Cheese from Cheeses Of Europe. Bottom: Amour, a soft goat’s milk cheese from Coach Farm, available at Dean & DeLuca.

Flora has created the Valentine’s Day platter with:

Top: Godminster makes a heart-shaped
British Cheddar for Valentine’s Day. Bottom:
Pickled baby beets from Sainsbury.

To decorate your cheese plate for Valentine’s Day, here are more pink, purple and red garnishes:

 
RECIPE: PICKLED BABY BEETS

This recipe saves time by using jarred or canned baby beets.

Ingredients

 
Variations

For a spiced beets profile, substitute for the pickling spices:

1. COMBINE all ingredients, except the beets, in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Let cool.

2. ADD the beets to an airtight container and cover with the pickling liquid, which should cover the beets.
beets. It will easily peel off with your fingers. Cut the beets in half or leave whole if they are very small.

3. REFRIGERATE for one day to two weeks.
 
WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CHEESE?

Check out the different types of cheese in our picture-packed Cheese Glossary.