Ground lamb, curry, bulgur, and beets do NOT mix well

Over the weekend, I tried a new recipe I found -- curried bulgur with ground lamb and beets.  Now, I'm always game for new flavor combinations, and although this seemed a bit out there, I figured I should trust in the Washington Post food section.  Well...  not everything that is written should necessarily be followed.  Don't get me wrong -- it wasn't HORRIBLE by any stretch.  It was just odd, and not particularly congruent.  

The idea of combining lamb and bulgur  has thousands of years of tradition--as the backbone for kibbeh.  While curry powder is a bit of a stretch on traditional spicing, it's still not out of the realm, by any means.  The tomato paste in the bulgur is, again, traditional.  Where I should've known I was going wrong was in adding the beets and the liquid contents of teh canned beets (yes, this was the recipe directions!).  First of all, my intuition is to always be suspicious of a recipe that prefers canned over fresh (except for tomatoes--that's another whole story).  But the "juice" seemed integral to the recipe, as it's what you use to cook the bulgur.  So, OK, I follow the directions.  

Well, this naturally turned the bulgur a highly unnatural shade of pinkish-red - which, combined with the tomato paste, created a most disturbing appearance.  Then, the ground lamb, of a similar texture, but browned color, mixed in, made for an unappetizing appearance.  But the real cruz of the problem was the mix of flavors--curry and lamb are great together.  Lamb and tomato, and bulgur all work together.  The curry would've been just fine.  But the beets and beet juice was just the most odd addition--the earthy, sweet flavors just clashed terribly with the lamb and curry.  Adding lime juice at the end (per the recipe) did brighten it up, but did little to bring this discordant mess together.  So, here's a recipe to NOT use again.

On a personal note, my wife's grandma passed away over the weekend, so we will be back in Cleveland in the near future.  We shall all miss Bea Weber terribly, but cherish our wonderful memories.