Beet

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. Makes use of the microwave oven.

Beets and red cabbage are a great combination. In this recipe, the two are grated and then slowly cooked with onions. The result is a side dish that would go well with roast veal, pot roast or sausages.

The lovely color and tangy taste of this starter make it a real crowd pleaser. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less but requires additional unattended time.

Save the beet tops for a quick side dish: just sauté them with garlic and olive oil, sprinkle with lemon, salt and pepper, and serve.

Choose beets and potatoes of about the same size.

Cabbage has been a staple vegetable in New England since the colonists sowed the first seeds. In the beginning, English settlers boiled it, just as they had back home. Eventually, other immigrants introduced creative new ways to prepare it. Coleslaw, for example, was brought over by the Dutch. This is our version, with the colorful addition of beets, another popular ingredient in this part of the world.

Strong beef broth and garlic, not sugar, make a true Ukrainian borscht delicious. Fresh root vegetables and roasted beets provide plenty of sweetness which is balanced by an acid edge of lemon.

A traditional French assiette crudités (raw vegetable salad) just like those served all over Paris.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

We adapted this gorgeous salad, full of intriguing flavors and textures and so colorful it looks like a fireworks display, from a recipe that Mexican chef María Dolores Torres Yzábal contributed to México, The Beautiful Cookbook.

Can be prepared for 45 minutes or less.

Ana Garcia of Cuernavaca, Mexico, writes: "My great-grandmother, Josefina, was a highly regarded butcher, and she taught me the communal style of cooking that Mexico is known for. That's one of the reasons I opened my own cooking school, La Villa Bonita — to show others how authentic Mexican cuisine is prepared, as opposed to the usual tacos, burritos, and Tex-Mex dishes." My husband, Robb, and I also run our own restaurant, Reposado. He insisted that we open the place because he thought my recipes deserved a wider audience. At the restaurant I like to experiment — the menu at Reposado is nouvelle Mexican — but at my cooking school I feature more traditional recipes. Working at both places gives me the chance to show off both cooking styles. When beets are cooked as they are in this recipe, they turn a bright fuchsia color. Wear disposable plastic gloves when working with beets. Puree only one or two cups of hot soup at a time, holding the top of the blender firmly to keep it from flying off.

Good cooks never discard the nutritious beet greens. Here, the greens are combined with roasted beets, capers and feta in a Greek-inspired salad. Offer this before roast leg of lamb with crisp potatoes.

A Scandinavian table is seldom without them.