Just Beet It! 18 of Our Favorite Root Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What are the root vegetables like beets? ›

This category includes beets, potatoes and sweet potatoes, yams, parsnips, turnips, jicama, radishes, celery root, carrots, rutabagas, Jerusalem artichokes or sunchokes, daikon, and more.

Steaming beets is a healthful cooking method because they retain most of their vitamins and minerals—they're not boiled out in water—and stay incredibly vibrant. Plus, steaming small beets or beet quarters is quick and easy for weeknights.

Wash the beets gently, making sure that you don't tear the skins, then place in a pan of warm water, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer until tender – around 20–30 minutes. Alternatively, you can steam whole beetroot or bake them in the oven for 2–3 hours at 150°C/gas mark 2.

They're known for their earthy flavor and aroma. Many people call them a superfood because of their rich nutritional profile. In addition to bringing a pop of color to your plate, beets are highly nutritious and packed with essential vitamins, minerals, and plant compounds, many of which have medicinal properties.

Beets and beet juice are high in nitrates, substances that turn into nitric oxide inside your body. Your body naturally produces nitric oxide, which is crucial for blood vessel health. Nitric oxide relaxes and widens your arteries, allowing more blood to flow through and significantly lowering blood pressure.

The oxalates found in beets can increase your uric acid level, meaning that too many beets can lead to gout. To avoid this, stick to no more than a single half-cup serving of beets per day.

Steaming in the oven rather than baking helps preserve more of the healthy vitamins and minerals in beets. This method also helps beets better retain their beautiful, vibrant color.

The beetroot is the taproot portion of the beet plant, usually known in North American as the beet, also table beet, garden beet, red beet, or golden beet.

Is it better to boil or bake beets? ›

Roasting beets gives them a sweeter, richer, and deeper flavor than boiling does.

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.

Moreover, beets are low in calories with zero cholesterol and a small amount of fat. However, the root is high in sugar and carbohydrates, so while you can consume the greens on top of the root in unlimited quantities, you should only have the root a few times a week. Beets are best from early spring to late fall.

Beets (Beta vulgaris var. crassa) and Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris var. cicla) are members of the Chenopodiaceae family, along with spinach and lambquarters.

Radishes. Radishes and beets look closely related, and the two root vegetables can grow in close quarters. They do best in similar growing conditions, with beets reaching further into the soil first and breaking it up for beets. However, radishes are also smaller, which lets the two grow comfortably in the same plot.

Beets are part of the Chenopodiaceae family, also known as the Goosefoot family. Other members of this botanical family include spinach, Swiss chard and quinoa. Beet greens (the tops) hold more nutritional value than the root even though the root is consumed more often than the greens.