You can't beet this side dish!

It was cool and damp the other day and I really wanted something warm and sweet that was a good side dish to go with a spinach salad.
I hadn't been to the grocery to do any "real" shopping in some time but I wanted something healthy.
Such a dilemma.
Rummaging through the pantry I found a can of sliced beets. Beets are a comfort food of sorts. They kind of remind me of my childhood when I was not a big vegetable fan, but beets were sweet enough that I didn't feel like I was eating something that was good for me.
When I was little, I liked that pickled-sweet flavor. Sometimes I ate them straight from the can, other times I warmed them up. And when I was feeling really daring, I'd drown them in sour cream for a treat that was the absolute ugliest color of pink I've ever seen in something that was actually edible.
I just recently discovered that beets and chards are both part of the amaranth family. One species is obviously cultivated for its root and the other for its leaves, but they come from the same family. Whp'd have guessed that?
And, did you know that the roots and leaves of the beet have been used in folk medicine to treat a wide variety of ailments?

Ancient Romans used beetroot as a treatment for fevers and constipation.

Hippocrates advocated the use of beet leaves as binding for wounds. Since Roman times, beetroot juice has been considered an aphrodisiac. From the Middle Ages, beetroot was used as a treatment for a variety of conditions, especially illnesses relating to digestion and the blood.
This medicine has it's own sugar to help it go down, it seems.
So, cook some up and reap the benefits.

Gingered Beets

1 can of  sliced beets

3 tablespoons of sugar
2 teaspoons of cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
1/4 cup of raisins
2 tablespoons of butter

• Drain beets and reserve 3/4 of a cup of the liquid.
• In a saucepan combine the sugar, the cornstarch, the ginger, and the salt.
• Blend in the reserved liquid from the beets and the lemon juice.
• Add the raisins and cook the whole mix over medium-low heat, stirring, until it's thickened and bubbly.
• Add the butter and the sliced beets.
• Simmer until the whole thing is heated through, about 5 to 10 minutes.

Vegetarian.