How to Cook Beets

No other vegetable can match the ruby intensity of the beet. Lore has it that beets are good for your blood, literally and figuratively. So while they take a little time to cook, they're certainly worth it.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• beets
• Groceries
• Roasting Pans
• Saucepans
• Kitchen Utility Knives
• Cutting Boards

1. Wash the beets and trim the ends off before cooking.

2. 

   Place trimmed beets in a roasting pan and add a little water for steam. Roast the beets at 425 degrees F for 30 to 45 minutes (cover the pan with foil) or until the beets are easily pierced with a knife. Slip off the skins under running water and slice or dice.

3. If boiling, cook the beets for 20 to 30 minutes, or until tender.

4. If using a microwave oven, cook the beets with a little water for 8 to 15 minutes.

5. Match beets with orange (juice and zest), ginger or both.

6. 

   Dress beets with a vinaigrette. Serve warm or at room temperature. Add some sweet onion, parsley, and hard-boiled egg chunks for a hearty salad.

7. Keep the beet greens - you can cook and eat these like any other slightly bitter greens (see "How to Cook Greens" in the Relate eHows).

8. 

   If you're mixing beets with other vegetables (in a salad, for instance), cook and dress the beets separately and add them last. Their vivid color will seep into everything else otherwise.

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[doorsbydon]

on 1/6/2009 I ate 3 big fresh beets and drank the juice//// thought i was dying i peed bright red for three days.You guys might want to mention that this some of your comments

on 9/24/2006 My dad told me not to cut the beets and that even the dirt doesn't matter. Once cooked the skin slips off anyway, so the cleaning and trimming are unnecessary. Beets also don't matter in size, small or large they taste the same, so if it's cooking time you're looking, for I suggest the small ones. But if it's one large beet you want, then it will take a while!

on 11/22/2005 I was taught to rinse the garden dirt off of beets very gently, to avoid breaking the stems any closer to the root than 4 or 5 inches. I also avoid scratching the skin of the beet. Then, I cut the stems off 4 or 5 inches from the beet. This distance was required to prevent excessive "bleeding" of the red juices into the cooking liquid. I wonder if newer varieties of beets make this unnecessary, because I never see references to this precaution any more. Cutting the tip of the root off before cooking would have been equally unthinkable for the same reason.

on 11/22/2005 If you don't snip off the ends but rather leave 1 inch of the leaf stem on the beets they will not "bleed" so much in your water and they retain all their color. Just rinse under cold water and the skins peel off.