Beet Water for Food Coloring

There are a couple of things I have been doing with beet water that just tickles me pink! What is beet water? It is the, often overlooked, liquid that's left in the pot after steaming beets! The first time I used it was to color icing. Just a tablespoon of beet water and I had a lovely pink topping for cookies! Try it. Then one day I was making Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce and thought I'd try to intensify the color and added a couple tablespoons of frozen beet water and, wow, what a brillant sauce it made. There really isn't much flavor to the water so it shouldn't affect the overall flavor of whatever it is you add it to. Let me know if you come up with any other ways to use this fabulous, all-natural food coloring.

I've found that the easiest way to store and use beet water is to pour the cooled liquid into a small zip lock bag and freeze. When you need it, take it out of the freezer, give the bag a couple of gentle whacks, and use the broken off chunks.