20+ Easy Delicious Beet Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the tastiest way to eat beets? ›

You can use cooked beets in salads, to make hummus or to blend into smoothies. They can be diced for slaw, quartered for a grain bowl or mashed to make a dip or spread. Their thick and chewy texture is even great in a galette or quesadilla.

Extra virgin olive oil adds flavor to the beets and keeps them from burning. Salt + Pepper. Simple seasonings essential to roasted vegetables. Balsamic Vinegar.

Steaming: Steaming is a great way to cook beets while retaining their nutritional value. To steam beets, first, scrub them clean and trim off the greens and tail. Place them in a steamer basket over a pot of boiling water and steam for 30-40 minutes, or until they are tender.

If I'm planning to make a salad, or adding the beets to a buddha bowl, I like to roast them for extra flavor. When planning to puree the beets into a soup, dip or hummus, I like to steam or boil the beets. If you have a steamer basket, I recommend steaming over boiling the beets.

TIPS FOR cooking beets

Keep checking whichever method you're using. Don't remove the beet skin before cooking. It's really not necessary and it's much easier to do so after cooking. Some also find that removing the skin prior to cooking takes away some of the beet's earthy test.

Beets are a weekly ritual around here. Usually we boil them and toss them in a sweet sour vinaigrette and keep them in the refrigerator to eat all week. The vinegar in the dressing "pickles" the beets, helping them last longer in the fridge.

Beets are naturally sweet and earthy, making them a versatile vegetable to incorporate into your meals. By adding vinegar to the boiling process, you can elevate the flavors of beets and give them a delightful tangy kick. The vinegar helps balance the sweetness of the beets and brings out their natural richness.

Their “earthy” flavor comes from a compound called geosmin, which is also the same compound that we associate with the smell of “fresh rain” and “forest soil”. Some people are much more sensitive to this compound than others, that is why some people say they taste like dirt, and others love them.

Things to Watch Out For

One concern with eating beets is that eating a lot of beets may cause gout. Gout is an extremely painful condition caused by an increased uric acid level in your blood. The oxalates found in beets can increase your uric acid level, meaning that too many beets can lead to gout.

Just because beets grow big does not mean they can't be good to eat, if mine ever grew that big I'd celebrate! One beet can feed your entire family at that size. Try roasting one of them until you can stick a prong into it easily, then remove it and let it cool.

Can you freeze beets raw? ›

Raw beets can also be frozen, but they may not last as long or retain the same quality as cooked beets. If you want to freeze them raw, I recommend at least blanching them for a few minutes to help preserve quality, nutrition, and texture.

My favorite way to cook beets is to roast them, which gives a sweeter, richer, and deeper flavor than boiling does. Another advantage is that they don't bleed as much, especially if they're roasted whole. Incidentally, to get beet stains off your hands, wet them, rub them with coarse salt, then wash with soap.

Cure your vegetables as you would a piece of meat for a couple of days. This can be achieved by rubbing the vegetable or mushroom with salt at a concentration of 1.75% of the vegetable's weight, wrapping it tightly in plastic or vacuum sealing it, and letting it sit in the fridge for 2-3 days.

No need to peel before or after baking. The skin, which is perfectly edible, just seems to disappear during the baking process. The trick to pan-roasted beets is to drop the temperature a bit. I always roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts, carrots, and pretty much all the other veggies at 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Caramelize them on a grill. Roasting beets seems like the most common method to bring out their natural sweetness. However, there's one unconventional way to caramelize beets: firing up the grill and watching it do its magic. Not only does it intensify their candy-like flavor, but it also imparts a smokiness to them.