In summer salads, you can't beat these earthy vegetables

A weekly column on summer ingredients.

Burgundy beets are so intensely colored they can stain your hands, your counters, and any food they come in contact with. These humble roots, long relegated to Eastern European borscht -- a hot meaty pot in the winter, and cold clear broth in summer -- became snazzy additions to contemporary salads. Chefs prize them for the earthy taste they add to micro greens and the textural contrast they offer goat cheese and toasted walnuts, favorite pairings.

Now that the orbs are available in gold, orange, and candy-cane stripes (these go by their Italian name, chiogga), beets are on even more menus. They're a cinch to cook at home, too. The tri-colored rounds stay vibrant after boiling or roasting. At the Siena Farm stand at the Boston Public Market in Dewey Square last week, Sarah Blackburn said that she shapes foil packets to roast the beets ($3 a bunch), separating the reds from the other varieties. Each gets lots of fresh garlic, and plenty of salt, pepper, and fresh lemon thyme. ``No one wants the leaves," she says. A pity. She sautes them in oil and adds a splash of red wine vinegar at the end of cooking. Summer is sweet and piquant.

-- SHERYL JULIAN