Don't toss those beet greens! Thinly sliced, they make a delicious salad.
Photo Credit: Amy Traverso
As sure as the first robin sighting of the year, the appearance of beets on restaurant menus is a sure harbinger of spring. Even in climates where local beets won’t be harvested for weeks, we still see them everywhere. Chalk it up to a craving for bright colors and sweet flavors after the long winter months.
Back in the home kitchen, beets are a terrific addition to salads, soups (borscht is just the beginning), pastas (particularly golden beets, which won’t turn your noodles a deep magenta), and braises. You can buy canned and vacuum-packed, cooked and peeled beets at your local supermarket, but roasting them yourself is so easy, and the results are better: silken, fresh, concentrated flesh. Here’s how to roast beets at home:
Don’t toss those beet greens! Thinly sliced, they make a delicious salad. Photo Credit : Amy Traverso
HOW TO ROAST BEETS
1. Preheat your oven to 400°.
Preheat your oven to 400° Photo Credit : Amy Traverso
2. Rinse the beets well, scrubbing as needed. Trim the greens and about 1/4 inch off the top of each beet (save the greens for soups, salads, stews, casseroles, etc. They taste much like Swiss chard and packed with vitamins K, A, and C, as well as potassium). Lay each beet, cut-side down, on a piece of aluminum foil.
Lay each beet, cut-side down, on a piece of aluminum foil. Photo Credit : Amy Traverso
3. Wrap the foil up around the beat, pinching it together at the top.
Wrap the foil up around the beat, pinching it together at the top. Photo Credit : Amy Traverso
4. Arrange the beet packs on a rimmed baking sheet and roast until tender, 30 to 40 minutes, depending on size. A sharp knife tip should easily pierce the flesh when the beets are fully cooked.Roast until tender, 30 to 40 minutes, depending on size. Photo Credit : Amy Traverso
5. Unwrap the packets and let the beets cool until just warm enough to handle.
Let the beets cool until just warm enough to handle. Photo Credit : Amy Traverso
6. Use paper towels (or a dark-colored kitchen towel) to rub the skin off the cooked beets. It will slip right off, revealing the glossy surface below.
Rub the skin off the cooked beets. Photo Credit : Amy Traverso
7. Slice, dice, or puree your beets as your recipe requires. Roasted beets, ready to eat! Photo Credit : Amy Traverso
Ready to roast your own? Get the recipe below for easy roasted beets, plus a citrusy salad featuring roasted beets, greens, and crispy goat cheese.
Amy Traverso is the senior food editor at Yankee and cohost of the public television series Weekends with Yankee, a coproduction with GBH. Previously, she was food editor at Boston magazine and an associate food editor at Sunset magazine. Her work has also been published in The Boston Globe, Saveur, and Travel & Leisure, and she has appeared on Hallmark Home & Family, The Martha Stewart Show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Amy is the author of The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, which was a finalist for the Julia Child Award for best first-time author and won an IACP Cookbook Award in the “American” category.
