Non-pickled beets?

[BrainGlutton]

I've never eaten, never even seen on the table, beets in any form but the pickled form you get out of a can (which I loathe). But I've sometimes seen whole raw beets in the supermarket. Are there other, more edible, ways to prepare them?

[Flutterby]

We love pickled beets.. but will also buy them from time to time and just boil them and eat them with a bit of butter. You could also make borscht.

That's really the only ways I've eaten beets.

[lorene]

Yes! Roast those babies (Scrub them, wrap in foil, roast in an over until fork-tender), then peel and toss with vinaigrette or put them in a salad with a strong cheese like feta or goat cheese. OR peel, slice, and saute or stirfry.

Honestly, there are so many yummy things you can do with them. Try starting here (http://www.epicurious.com/tools/searchresults?search=beets&type=simple&threshold=53&sort=1) for some recipes.

[Emily Litella]

There's Harvard Beets, one of my favorites. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Harvard-Beets/Detail.aspx I love beets, I'll eat them plain.

[Ludy]

IMHO there is absolutely no way to make a beet edible.

None whatsoever.

[Annie-Xmas]

IMHO there is absolutely no way to make a beet edible.

None whatsoever.

Mmmmm....Red Flannel Hash (http://www.dianaskitchen.com/page/meats/hash.htm)

[Surok]

Borscht (http://kuking.net/kuking_eng.html#borscht). Herring in a fur coat (http://beyondsalmon.blogspot.com/2005/12/herring-in-fur-coat.html). Vinaigrette salad (http://russian-crafts.com/recipes/vinaigrette.html). Beet caviar (http://wischik.com/damon/Recipe/html/beetcaviar.html).

Beets are good!

[anu-la1979]

Yeah, basically we take a peeler to them, steam them up in a pressure cooker and then make them into a pachadi. It's a spicy south asian yoghurt salad.

Generally involves a copious amount of chilies. My father hates beets so we didn't get it too often but I quite like it. I'll buy a baby beet or two sometimes and make it. I think Madhur Jaffrey has it as a recipe in one of her books. It's pretty common south indian recipe.

[Kuboydal]

I like to grate fresh beets over a salad and used to make vegetarian pepperoni substitute by frying them in oil with too much salt and pepper,

[RealityChuck]

Don't forget the greens (i.e., the green part of the fresh beets). Just steam them until they're hot.

[Mooch]

They can be used in perfume in order to "lighten up".

[MrSquishy]

IMHO there is absolutely no way to make a beet edible.

None whatsoever.I agree. Is this one of those things that's genetic? I think I have the gene that makes beets taste exactly like dirt.

[Mangetout]

I agree. Is this one of those things that's genetic? I think I have the gene that makes beets taste exactly like dirt.
I think they taste very earthy - I just happen to like that. I buy the vacuum-packed cooked beetroot and just slice it for salads. OP, if you're accustomed to eating it pickled, you might want to dress it with a bit of vinegar.

Beetroot ('beets') is one of the few vegetables that really does need extended cooking - boil with the skin on - it just slips off afterwards.

It can also be grated raw to make really pretty coleslaw.

[Labrador Deceiver]

I agree. Is this one of those things that's genetic? I think I have the gene that makes beets taste exactly like dirt.

I'd say so, since beets contain more sugar than just about any other vegetable.

[Zsofia]

I roast them frequently. I do a salad with roasted beets, blue cheese, and candied walnuts that people adore - I do a walnut oil dressing with it that's always a hit.

[silenus]

Yes! Roast those babies (Scrub them, wrap in foil, roast in an over until fork-tender), then peel and toss with vinaigrette or put them in a salad with a strong cheese like feta or goat cheese. OR peel, slice, and saute or stirfry.

Yep. This is pretty much the way they are served around Casa Silenus. Beets are yummy.

[redtail23]

I agree. Is this one of those things that's genetic? I think I have the gene that makes beets taste exactly like dirt.Yup, that's it for me too. They taste exactly like dirt. (And I've ingested my share of dirt, for one reason and another.) Not "earthy" or "hearty" or anysuch nonsense - just dirt. blech!

[vison]

Peel them, cut them into nice sized chunks, put them in a lightly oiled roasting pan, drizzle olive oil over them, and roast them at a moderate heat until they are tender and carmelized. (At least an hour, probably more like two, don't have the oven too hot, about 350 F.) Make sure to salt and pepper them well. This works well for turnips, too. I loathed both beets and turnips until I tried them this way and now? Now I think they are quite divine. They become sweet and yummy. You can put a dab of butter on your roasted veg, and you will achieve beet/turnip Nirvana. Or pretty near, anyway.

They are also very nice roasted with a roast beef or chicken. The slow roasting brings out their sweetness. Also for parsnips, carrots, and fennel.

[president eric b]

My dad grows beetroot. I like to cook them in a pressure cooker then serve them chopped up with balsamic vinegar, fresh mint and feta cheese. Yum yum.

[Tabula Rasa]

Mmm. Roast beet and sectioned grapefruit salad.

One warning: some small children love, love, love roast beets (without the grapefruit). If you should find that you have one of these children, and if you should leave said child in the care of a sitter or a grandma or such after a major beet-munching binge, be sure to warn the caretaker before s/he opens a diaper and is tempted to call 911.

[Cervaise]

I roast them, as described. (I've done it both with the wrap-in-foil-and-peel-later and the peel-first-and-cut-into-chunks methods mentioned.)

I have also roasted them in foil and pureed them to make delicious soup.

I have also grated them and cooked the color and flavor into a shallow braising liquid. I then use that liquid to cook starches, couscous primarily. Makes it ruby red, like roe.

You could also squirt that colored liquid in patterns on fresh pasta before putting it through the machine another time or two.

Mmm. Love beets.

[Zsofia]

Mmm. Roast beet and sectioned grapefruit salad.

One warning: some small children love, love, love roast beets (without the grapefruit). If you should find that you have one of these children, and if you should leave said child in the care of a sitter or a grandma or such after a major beet-munching binge, be sure to warn the caretaker before s/he opens a diaper and is tempted to call 911.
I once got an emergency call from my vet when my dog was in for grooming - he'd had some leftover beets the night before and the groomer took him out for a walk!

[devilsknew]

Brain Glutton, are you sure that the beets you have eaten from the can are pickled? I've only ever had pickled beets from a jar off the supermarket shelves. Normally, beets from a can are simply sliced and boiled beets, maybe some salt added....

Anyways, I think a good recipe for fresh beets at a BBQ, would be to take some cippolini and beets-- cut off their tops, peel, cut them into quarters and throw them into a bowl. Dress the quartered cippolini and beets with a few tablespoons each of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, a tablespoon of dark brown sugar, salt and pepper, and toss thouroughly. Portion the beets onions and dressing, along with a knob o butter, into sealed aluminum packets. Toss them onto a medium grill 15-20 minutes before the steaks go on.

[Olive, The Other Reindeer]

Hubby makes a nice orange-butter sauce - once he roasts the beets (he says, leave the skins on to roast, let them cool a bit when done, then rub the skin off with paper towels - wear gloves to keep your hands from turning red), he slices them. Sauce is easy - heat some OJ to boiling, and thicken with cornstarch (mix cornstarch 1:1 with water). When at desired thickness (add a little of the slurry at a time, so you don't thicken it too much), he adds softened butter and allows it to incorporate, sometimes, as much as a 1/2 stick, depending on how much OJ he started with. Season with salt and white pepper, and toss the beets with it. Serve hot with whatever (in our house, usually chicken).

[elfkin477]

Pickled beets are awesome. Not because of their taste (which I'm no fan of) but because once they're cooked if you take a handful of them and crush them, it looks a lot like blood. More so than any special effects I've seen in the movies, too. Just a couple of cans' worth of beets watered down looks like a massacre.



Why are you looking at me like that? Working in the dining hall's dishroom was boring. We had to make our own fun.

[Eonwe]

Mmm. Roast beet and sectioned grapefruit salad.

One warning: some small children love, love, love roast beets (without the grapefruit). If you should find that you have one of these children, and if you should leave said child in the care of a sitter or a grandma or such after a major beet-munching binge, be sure to warn the caretaker before s/he opens a diaper and is tempted to call 911.


Funny story, but I grew a lot of beets this year, and was eating fairly large quantities. I had a moment of panic where I thought I should see a doctor, before I realized that the color was beet-related.

[StinkyBurrito]

Peel them, cut them into nice sized chunks, put them in a lightly oiled roasting pan, drizzle olive oil over them, and roast them at a moderate heat until they are tender and carmelized. (At least an hour, probably more like two, don't have the oven too hot, about 350 F.) Make sure to salt and pepper them well. This works well for turnips, too. I loathed both beets and turnips until I tried them this way and now? Now I think they are quite divine. They become sweet and yummy. You can put a dab of butter on your roasted veg, and you will achieve beet/turnip Nirvana. Or pretty near, anyway.

They are also very nice roasted with a roast beef or chicken. The slow roasting brings out their sweetness. Also for parsnips, carrots, and fennel.
Well, I experimented with this last night. I like food and I like to cook, but I don't think that I have ever eaten a beet before aside from one that may have come on a salad or something.

The store had both jumbo, softball sized beets and smaller beets. I choose one of the big ones. I peeled it and cut it up into half round slices. I discovered that beets are very sturdy and take a little muscle to cut through. I also found out that cutting up a beet can turn your kitchen into a crime scene.

Anyway, I popped the slices on a sheet pan and popped it into the oven and 350 for the prescribed 2 hours. I went outside for the whole time and didn't check on them. When I came back in the house, it was immediately evident that something was amiss. Extraction of the beets from the oven revealed that they had turned into charcoal.

I wasn't upset, as it was really just an experiment more than anything else - I wasn't counting on the beets to feed me for dinner or anything. But I will try again tonight with a slightly less intense roasting plan and slightly more love and attention. I also have some parsnips and carrots sitting around in the fridge that I can roast at the same time. I'll try to report back here.

[Flutterby]

Ohhh now that sounds yummy, Olive.

[Trunk]

I make beet salad with goat cheese, caramelized onions, and nuts. Like Zsofia.

They're a mess to handle. The color is so intense. But, I like beets. I may try growing some this year.

[Kuboydal]

I've always wanted to have a borscht and asparagus party. The ensuing anguish of the uninitiated would be worthwhile.

[Maeglin]

Funny story, but I grew a lot of beets this year, and was eating fairly large quantities. I had a moment of panic where I thought I should see a doctor, before I realized that the color was beet-related.

Oh lord, ditto that. I make homemade vegetable juice every day before work with my badass, tax return-writing, fellatio-performing juicer. I love beets, so I have tossed one in every day for the past, oh, ten days or so.

What a difference a few beets make. Radioactive colored on the way in; radioactive colored on the way out.

[Acsenray]

To my palate, canned beets are loathsome. But I've never come across an opportunity to try any other preparation. If someone had offered a different way of eating beets, I'd have gladly tried. It's strange though how rarely one encounters the beet in everyday U.S.A.

[Thudlow Boink]

Brain Glutton, are you sure that the beets you have eaten from the can are pickled? I've only ever had pickled beets from a jar off the supermarket shelves. Normally, beets from a can are simply sliced and boiled beets, maybe some salt added....This is what I was going to ask. I always thought pickled beets and canned beets were two completely different things.

I remember canned (non-pickled) beets being a key ingredient in the "Cape Cod Turkey" I had as a kid, along with fish, potatoes, and bacon. (A Google search turned up several references to "cape cod turkey," but none of them are the specific dish I remember).

I also remember a (generic) can of beets making a good gag gift...

[TheLoadedDog]

Americans! C'mere, siddown...

Remove the pickles from your hamburgers, and replace with beets. THAT is a real hamburger. Now go, and do not sin again. :D

[Dangerosa]

Mmm. Roast beet and sectioned grapefruit salad.

One warning: some small children love, love, love roast beets (without the grapefruit). If you should find that you have one of these children, and if you should leave said child in the care of a sitter or a grandma or such after a major beet-munching binge, be sure to warn the caretaker before s/he opens a diaper and is tempted to call 911.


Good advice for adults as well, who may not wish to have the camera stuck up their colon to look for signs of cancer when they don't recognize the result of a beet binge.

(my father, we still haven't let him forget it)

[Patty O'Furniture]

Tangent Alert:

Does anybody think that mac & cheese goes with beets? Any time I have M&C I always crave some Harvard glazed beets on the side. I even mix them together little as I eat, the same way you might mix peas & smashed potatoes.

[Larry Mudd]

Me, I love to make (and eat) borscht and beet salad.

I am very grateful for this thread, and expect to buy more beets than ever before at next shopping.

I always tell my girlfriends that I prepare beet salads and borscht for them because I am sensitive to the particular needs of menstruating creatures. In truth it's just because I love the taste and get a kick out of pink urine.

[StinkyBurrito]

Well, I tried making more beets last night. It worked out much better this time. Not nearly as burnt! I actually made a second batch because they were very good and I was still a little hungry. They were just popped in the oven with olive oil, salt and pepper, and dressed with good balsalmic when they came out. The results this morning were fun!

[GilaB]

I think when somebody mentioned roasting for an hour or two, they meant whole beets. I always roast mine whole, because I find cutting them up raw to be a messy pain the butt, while the peels of roasted ones slip off pretty easily, and the beet itself is easy to chop. If you're roasting a whole beet, wrap it in foil without cutting/poking it in any way, put it on a cookie sheet so that if it drips, your kitchen won't get smoky, and roast at about 450 degrees (F) until it's pierced very easily with a thin knife. (Error on the side of more roasting - if it's not well done, the peel won't slip off nicely.) Try to pick beets that are about the same size, as roasting time is a function of that, and you don't want to be constantly monitoring them.

[BrainGlutton]

Brain Glutton, are you sure that the beets you have eaten from the can are pickled?

No, I just assumed. That's their natural flavor?! :eek:

[Ferret Herder]

No, I just assumed. That's their natural flavor?! :eek:
If they taste sour/vinegary, that's a pickled beet. If they're more sweet/earthy, not pickled.

[kittenblue]

All these great suggestions for beets, but no one has mentioned the one my mom served most often. Open can of beets, dump into pot, heat up, drain and serve hot, with butter, salt and pepper. If she didn't make Harvard beets, this is how we ate them. Not horrible, but it hasn't inspired me to buy beets in about...7 years. I do want to try roasting a beet though, and this has inspired me. Off to the Westside Market on Saturday....

[Flutterby]

kittenblue that is basically how my Mom makes beets only she buys fresh and boils them, chops them up then serves them hot with butter.

Canned beets are the devil *shudders* and yes, a very different animal from pickled beets (for a bit I was buying pickled beets imported from Poland or something by a little local deli.. I couldn't find them on store shelves for some reason, and I haven't talked to Grandma about what she does to pickle them).