How to Roast Beets

Roasting beets is a simple and delicious way to cook beets. You can serve roasted beets with any meal, then you can freeze leftover roasted beets to be eaten later. Here is how you can roast fresh beets.

Start with firm fresh beets. Cut off the beet greens then wash the beets well. If the beets were just pulled from the garden, you may need to scrub them. Do not peel the beets. After washing the beets, pat them dry with a paper towel or just let them sit on paper towels until dry.

Preheat the oven to 375. Line a large roasting pan with aluminum foil. If you do not have a roasting pan, you can use a cookie sheet. Place the clean, dry beets on the foil. Then drizzle a bit of vegetable oil on the beets. You can turn the beets so all sides are coated with a bit of the oil. If you don't want to get your hands oily, you can put each hand in a plastic sandwich bag.

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Cover the beets with another sheet of aluminum foil and crimp the edges to form a foil package with the beets sealed inside. Place the pan of beets in the oven and cook until the beets are tender. The amount of time it takes for your beets to cook depends on the size of the beets and how fresh they are. Small beets can take about 30 minutes to roast and large beets can take about an hour.

If you have different size beets, you can make a foil package for small beets and a foil package for large beets. Then you can easily remove the small beets and continue to let the large beets cook. Fresh beets tend to cook faster than beets that have been in the refrigerator for awhile. So, take the freshness into consideration when determining the cooking time. To check doneness, just open a foil packet and stick a sharp knife into a beet. If it slides in easily, the beets are done.

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When your beets are roasted, let them cool. When they are cool enough to touch, cut the top of the beet then just push on the peeling and it will just slide off. Remove the peelings from all the beets, even if you are planning on freezing them.

You can serve your roasted beets as is, or you can refrigerate them and add them to salads. You can also put whole beets or sliced beets in a jar with vinegar and let the jar set in the refrigerator for a few days and you will have pickled beets!