My childhood memories are of pickled beetroot, and I wasn't that keen on them. But I do quite like them roasted. I expect the apple gives the borscht extra sweetness and tartness.
The links John gave are quite interesting - apparently the earthiness is the same compound as made by soil bacteria, but made by the beet plants. They have bred beet with less earthiness:
“When you give somebody the Badger Flame beet, you can peel it, and you can just chomp on it like a stick of jicama,” Goldman says. “It’s sweet and crunchy with about as much earthiness as spinach. So you get that hit of sucrose and not the hit of the soil.”
which sounds tasty (although I'm not sure what jicama tastes like!) I wonder whether it is available in the UK? But the point is that it is selectable for. They're also bred varieties with more colouration.
My understanding is that there is a compound in beet that is good for the heart - some people drink beetroot juice as a health drink.
A graduate scientist turned automotive engineer, currently running a small shop and growing plants on Skye: turning a sheep field into a food forest.
