Cooking beet roots and greens

[ducphat30]

The methodologies placed in front of you from the other posts work very well. I am going to only add that you might want to have a pair of latex gloves on while you are peeling the beets to prevent your skin from discoloring.

[WHS]

Cut off the greens (you can save them and braise them with butter if you like), wash the beets but leave the skin on, put them in a roasting pan with a little water, cover with foil and bake for an hour at 350-375 Fahrenheit. When they pierce easily, peel the skins and add butter and salt. Since you live in Japan, soy sauce couldn't hurt. Maybe a little yuzu zest.

Plain but delicious, and your fingers will be pink for days! (So will your pee the next morning.)

[eje]

>but have never even touched fresh beets before.....

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The recipes above are perfect and I'm sure will be quite delicious.

I always thought I hated beets until I tasted them roasted, chilled and served with citrus, a nice vinaigrette and frise a few years ago. Ever since, I've been convert and am even growing them this season in my garden. However, I have made absolutely delicious beautiful roast beets for beet hating friends and not been able to convert them.

Since you have never touched beets before, I will remind you to wear plastic gloves when handling them, and peel them over wax paper or something else disposable.

If they are red beets, the juice will stain like the dickens.

Erik

[JAZ]

This is more a point of terminology, but when you wrap beets in foil, or add a little liquid and cook them covered, you're really not roasting the beets, you're steaming them.

And while I agree it's a good way to cook them, a much easier and faster way is to steam them in a pressure cooker. I used to do the wrapped-in-foil-in-the-oven method, but often had trouble with uneven cooking. And although I really wanted to believe that they tasted better, I no longer think that's true.

That being said, I have had roasted beets -- peeled, cubed, and tossed in olive oil and salt with a few other root vegetables and roasted at medium heat uncovered -- that were really good. In that case, roasting really did make a difference.

[torakris]

all these choices.....

I may have to divide those beets into 3 meals

I remember reading things about the bad beet stains, if I prepare them tonight it might just blend in with easter egg dye that is still on my fingers.

[mizducky]

I hate beets.

well, I thought I hated beets.

then this summer I had pickled beets at my aunt's house and they were wonderful.

Fresh beets are hard to come by in Japan, so in my quest to learn to love beets I have bought these water packed (pre-cooked) ones and tried them in soups, salds, etc and hated everything I made.

Yesterday I found some fresh beets at a really good price, I want to try roasting them but have never even touched fresh beets before.....

what do I do?

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Beets are yet another one of those vegetables that taste a whole lot better fresh than they do when preprocessed (whether canned or otherwise). They are also yet another one of those vegetables that, even when fresh, have traditionally been mishandled by a lot of cooks, such that a lot of folks grew up thinking they were irredeemably awful--whereas it really was the cooking method that was awful. It's crucial to throw out all your memories of beets as prepared by school lunchrooms, beets out of cans, beets overcooked to death by a well-meaning family member, overly sweetened pickled beets--just disregard all those kinds of previous experiences. When you start with fresh beets and handle them correctly--basically, cook them just until tender and no more, properly seasoned but without *any* added sugar--they are some of the yummiest things in the world.

Edited to add: don't mind me--I have a friend from the Midwest whose mother believed in cooking vegetables to death, and so hated most vegetables, and in the process of deprogramming her from her childhood post-traumatic stress re: vegetables I became a bit of a freaky-geek about the whole thing.

Edited March 28, 2005 by mizducky (log)

[Abra]

I just put the whole thing, skin included, no foil, in a 450 degree oven. A big beet takes maybe an hour and a quarter, a small beet about 45-50 minutes. Let them get good and soft, pop them out of their skins, and eat just as they are. Roasting makes them really sweet and earthy.

[chefzadi]

Nice and slow. 300 degree oven for about an 1 1/2 hours.

[Pam R]

I also do the wrapped in foil in the oven method.

For something different though, peel the beets (and you can do this with a combo. of sweet potato, carrots, onions... root veggies) dice and toss with salt, pepper, olive oil, a little balsamic and fresh garlic if you like. Spread them on a baking sheet lined with some parchment and roast at 400 F, until caramelized slightly. The time will vary greatly depending on the size of your dice and how hot your oven really is - toss them around every 10 minutes or so. Serve hot or cold.

[Chufi]

I also roast (or steam. ) beets wrapped in foil in the oven. I don't find it's necessary to use oil or salt.

In Holland, beets are often paired with smoked or unsmoked bacon. My favorite beet salad is watercress, beets, quartered hardboiled eggs, crispy bits of smoked bacon, cucumber and lots of chives. Simple vinaigrette of oil and lemon juice, salt and pepper. Mmmm.. I have some beets in my fridge right now, need to make that salad tomorrow!

[newguy]

Take a square of foil, put a drop of oil, salt and pepper and wrap the beet, one in a piece of foil. Then in your roasting pan, put a layer of kosher salt down and put the beets on top. this conducts the heat more evenly. Roast at 250 or 275 nice and slow until a pairing knife inserts easily.

Best beets you'll ever eat.

take your scraps chop them up and put into a blender with some oil and red wine vinegar, puree quickly and leave chunky. great vinaigrette or sauce for anything.

[chefzadi]

can't you guys agree on an oven temperature???

what is a girls to do.....

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Nice and slow, means low oven. Slow roasting beets brings out the sugars.

[cakewalk]

Mmmmm. Beets.

I also roast them, usually at high temp. I agree with JAZ that this is really like steaming, but I have a question for those of you who mentioned peeling and cutting before the beets are cooked: how do you manage this? Uncooked beets are like rocks. Peeling takes forever, and cutting them up usually bruises my wrists! Any suggestions?

[Pam R]

I also roast them, usually at high temp. I agree with JAZ that this is really like steaming, but I have a question for those of you who mentioned peeling and cutting before the beets are cooked: how do you manage this? Uncooked beets are like rocks. Peeling takes forever, and cutting them up usually bruises my wrists!  Any suggestions?

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I make approx. 75 L batches of beet borscht a few times a year and all of the beets are peeled before cooking (and sliced/diced). Sharp knives! I use a paring knife for peeling - not a peeler. I have used a peeler on occasion, but find that it takes much longer. Then a big chef's knife for cutting. Cut them in half first, then proceed to slice or dice.

I'm not sure what you're doing that bruises your wrists

I'll be doing a batch for Passover in a couple of weeks - I'll try to pay more attention to what I'm doing.

[cakewalk]

I also roast them, usually at high temp. I agree with JAZ that this is really like steaming, but I have a question for those of you who mentioned peeling and cutting before the beets are cooked: how do you manage this? Uncooked beets are like rocks. Peeling takes forever, and cutting them up usually bruises my wrists!  Any suggestions?

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I'm not sure what you're doing that bruises your wrists

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Using a crappy, not-good-enough knife. (It's all I have right now.) It demands all sorts of twisting and turning of said wrists just to get the knife through. So I stopped, and I just wrap them in foil, throw them in the oven, and peel and cut when they're cooked. But I'm sure they'd taste much better if they're roasted after they're peeled and sliced, so I'm going to give it another try. Hell, I've been working out, maybe my wrists are stronger. (Maybe I should get a good knife!!)

Thanks.

[torakris]

Yesterday I was reading in Bittman's How to Cook Everything that you can roast the beets and leave them wrapped in the foil and then refrigerate them for days until needed. Has anyone tried this? How long would they keep?

I want to try two different salad like dishes (on different days) with these and it would be easier if I could just cook them at one time.

He also said you could freeze them but he didn't say how... before or after cooking? cut or left whole?

[Anna N]

There has to be some "secret" here that I am missing. Over the last few days I have tried "roasting" beets. First, I followed a Michael Smith idea which was to cut raw beets into cubes, add orange juice and some cinnamon, cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 F. Then I tried a recipe from this thread which involved cutting up raw beets, tossing them with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar and roasting them at 400 F. Both methods resulted in bullet-hard, tasteless chunks of unappetizing appearing beets. I am a beet-lover and just want to try a new way and I am having no success whatever. Is it the beets? Me? These were small beets, about the size of a raquet ball.

[chefzadi]

There has to be some "secret" here that I am missing.  Over the last few days I have tried "roasting" beets.  First, I followed a Michael Smith idea which was to cut raw beets into cubes, add orange juice and some cinnamon, cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 F.  Then I tried a recipe from this thread which involved cutting up raw beets, tossing them with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar and roasting them at 400 F.  Both methods resulted in bullet-hard, tasteless chunks of unappetizing appearing beets.  I am a beet-lover and just want to try a new way and I am having no success whatever.  Is it the beets? Me?  These were small beets, about the size of a raquet ball.

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The secret to beets is too cook them on low heat, very slowly. It doesn't matter if they are peeled, cut or left whole with skin on.

Nice and slow.

[Della]

I just put the whole thing, skin included, no foil, in a 450 degree oven.  A big beet takes maybe an hour and a quarter, a small beet about 45-50 minutes.  Let them get good and soft, pop them out of their skins, and eat just as they are.  Roasting makes them really sweet and earthy.

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I have to say I agree with Abra's method - That is what I do as well. I love to put roasted beets in a salad and if you have any goat cheese laying around to go with - YUMMMMYY!!!!!

[mizducky]

There has to be some "secret" here that I am missing.  Over the last few days I have tried "roasting" beets.  First, I followed a Michael Smith idea which was to cut raw beets into cubes, add orange juice and some cinnamon, cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 F.  Then I tried a recipe from this thread which involved cutting up raw beets, tossing them with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar and roasting them at 400 F.  Both methods resulted in bullet-hard, tasteless chunks of unappetizing appearing beets.  I am a beet-lover and just want to try a new way and I am having no success whatever.  Is it the beets? Me?  These were small beets, about the size of a raquet ball.

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I'm not totally sure what size a racquetball is, but a quick googling suggested they're about 2 inches in diameter, which I would not consider a "small" beet.

Marian Morash (Victory Garden Cookbook, my go-to book for vegetables), suggests the following categories for beet sizes:

Baby beets: 1 inch and under

Small beets: 1 to 1 1/2 inches

Medium beets: 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches

Large beets: 2 1/2 inches and over

The smaller the beets, the more tender and more delicately-flavored they will be. Conversely, the bigger (and older) they are, the greater their tendency towards strong off-flavors and woody texture. Personally, I try to stick with beets no larger than 1 1/2 inches in diameter.

By the way, Morash's prefered oven-cooked beet method is as follows (and her comments provide some insight--or at least another set of opinions!--on the temp/time questions):

"Trim and wash whole beets, leaving skins on. Put beets into an ovenproof pan, cover, and bake at 300 [deg F] until tender. Count on 1 hour for 1 1/2 inch beets. Beets cook best at a low temperature, but when you're baking other dishes at a higher temperature, such as 350 or 375, add approximately 1/4 inch water and check occasionally to make sure the water doesn't evaporate ... High-temperature roasting of beets without water results in a richer, almost charred flavor."

Oh yeah, I'm not remembering whether this has already been brought up, but I find that when you trim beets, it's good to leave about an inch of green-stems on. If you cut the stems off completely, they'll bleed beet juice like crazy--which in addition to the mess potential, means the beets are losing liquid content, in other words drying out. Which is another reason why high-temp roasting of beets needs to be done carefully, because they can dry out and become unpleasant. I think it's also why so many beet "roasting" methods involve covering them or wrapping them in foil--not so much because the goal is to actually cook them by steam, but more as a way to retain their moisture rather than drying out.

(edited to fix tyops )

Edited March 30, 2005 by mizducky (log)

[jaynesb]

One hint if you are roasting/steaming golden beets in their skin. I found that the beautiful golden color turned gray if I left the beets in their skins too long after they were done cooking. I was cooking them in tin foil so I'm not sure if the tin foil caused the problem but when I tried peeling them without waiting too long, they kept the nice color.

jayne

[torakris]

They were wonderful!!

I can now say I like beets

I did a slow roast, almost 1 1/2 hours as they were quite big. I left them in the foil to cool and opened them about 6 hours later. I had a hard time peeling them and ended up cutting off the skins with a paring knife.

I used two today and left the other 3 wrapped in the foil for another day.

Are they easier to peel if you remove them from the foil right away?

I made a salad with blue cheese, arugula and sherry vinegar and EVOO dressing

Next time if I do this again I will serve it on a shallow platter and sprinkle the blue cheese on top.....

[Alex]

They were wonderful!!

I can now say I like beets

....

Are they easier to peel if you remove them from the foil right away?

I've found that to be the case. I usually wait until they've cooled enough to handle without burning my fingers to badly, then remove them from the foil. Rubbing the skins off with a few paper towels works pretty well for me. It also keeps my fingers from turning red.

[chefzadi]

Next time you might want to add some sugared pecans. They add a nice contrasting texture and flavor especially agains the bleu cheese.

I have to say in Los Angeles, salad meals are always huge sellers.

[mizducky]

For your continued roasted-beet-consuming pleasure, I have posted my recipe for a borscht using roasted beets as well as their greens to RecipeGullet.