when you say hot do you mean spicy hot?

my eldest daughter Elizabeth cooks beet with chilli. she boils then first than dices them. they get fried with chilli, garam masla spice mix and onions. eaten hot or cold. but there is no point asking for amounts as she just adds bits and bobs.

Could they be pickled beets? They sure have a zingy thing goin'.

Not pickles Paul - I can't abide vinegar! If you lived nearer maybe I could give you some - always assuming I get a crop, lol. Yes Eileen, they are spicy but not aggressively chilli hot. They are mini beets, served whole and you can't taste the vinegar. I just thought of looking at the label for the ingredients list and it sounds similar to Victoria's. When the beets are big enough to harvest I'll have a go. I have only just begun enjoying beetroot, after a lifetime of disliking it!

What put me off was school dinners in the 1940s. The meals came in big cans from some central depot and the mashed potato was almost cold. It was sometimes served with beetroot as the veg. The juice stained the mash bright red and it was horrible. The meat was fatty and the gravy almost cold. I was so glad to be allowed to go home to lunch after that even though at five years old I had to walk over half a steep mile on my own in each direction. How times have changed!

if its any consolation they weren't much better in the 70's. winter salad, grated carrot, diced pickled beetroot, sweetcorn, pickled red cabbage and hard boiled egg. in that order so the vinegar from the beetroot and cabbage see[ed into the other 3. I hate vinegar. It was always served with a gritty sausage meet pie with deep fried potato chunks. the pudding was Scalby tart. Not one of their best days. Friday was the worst day liver, mash and overcooked cabbage. the pudding was tasteless jelly and synthetic cream.

Elizabeth often adds a squirt of honey to make them sticky too.

I can still smell the grotty mince being cooked in the late 40's school canteen, awful stuff

And gritty semolina

I usually walked home for lunch back in the late 70's - and sometimes took half the class with me. My poor mom.

I was a captive as my school was 8 miles away or an hour on 2 buses. Primary school was a 5 min walk.

Happy memories - not! Happily my grammar school had its own canteen and things were much improved (except on milk pudding days...) On our table we used to have contests to see who could eat most prunes. They must have been special ones because they didn't seem to have the normal overdose results...
Lol Paul! Poor Mum as you said!

What's Scalby tart Eileen?

pastry base, layer of jam, layer of sponge and top with jam and desiccated coconut. usually served with custard. Not the worst pud that went to tapioca and rose hip syrup. Best was crumble.
Scalby is a village in Nth Yorks.The way it was written on the menu board looked like scabby tart and that's what most kids called it.
A favourite was Exeter stew veg inc.
I remember rice pud and prunes. I still love that combo.

I hated milk puddings altogether. Ground rice was the very worst with semolina a close second, both served with a blob of jam. I used to ask for a small helping and then smear it round the plate to look as though I'd eaten it, before the teacher on duty could notice and make me eat it...

We had something a bit like your scabby tart too. Crumble is still my favourite pud, best with more fruit and less crumble...I make my crumble topping with oats instead of flour these days so its more inclined to be a bit flapjacky.
Love rhubarb or gooseberries with strawberries for the best one.

I m sooo glad that I have never had a school dinner and judging by your descriptions of the food its a wonder you all survived , lol, by the way I LOVE BEETROOT x

I love pickles. You can pickle me anything! They are a palette cleanser esp with greasy foods. They freshen the mouth and also a very good probiotic - good for gut health. Pickle me anything!

Loopylou, you were lucky to escape school dinners. I found a large boiled caterpillar in my cabbage. When I told the dinner ladies they laughed. Until I was in my forties I used to pick carefully over my greens before eating & people used to ask what I was doing, even though by then I didn't remember what had triggered off this behaviour. When I did eventually remember I was able to get over this bad habit. Even so I still feel sick just thinking about it. We also had horrible milk puddings all of which I hate. The worst was Tapioca which we called frog spawn, that's what it looked like. Ugh!

I am very curious what kind of beets. If possible, post a photo of the product