Marinated, steamed, or pickled, beets have taken center stage on lunch and dinner tables around the country. Beets are beloved for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, as well as for being high in vitamins and minerals. Roasting them brings out the root vegetable’s sweetness; they’re terrific on salads, pizza–even simply on toast smeared with goat cheese. But in order to make a stellar dish, it’s essential to prep for stellar roasting. You can use any variety of beet, and here’s how to nail it every time:
- Choose your beets carefully
Even though roasting tenderizes these colorful root vegetables, saggy beets won’t perform nearly as well as firm beets. When shopping, seek out fresh beets with firm, smooth skins and big, green leaves; it shouldn’t give or squish when you squeeze it.
- Don’t get carried away with cleaning
Beets spend most of their lives underground, so it’s not uncommon to find dirt on them. A good scrubbing is advised, but it’s important not to scrub away the skin (or trash the greens, which are equally delicious all on their own and can be used in all sorts of other dishes.) During the roasting process, the skin helps retain flavor and moisture.
- Foil is your friend
Individually wrapping each beet in foil creates a second skin for holding in the vegetable’s best qualities, but it can also prolong how long roasting takes, since the oven’s heat has to penetrate the outer layer of foil first. Roasting beets without foil isn’t an entirely satisfactory solution either, because due to their natural sugar content, this ruby veg has a tendency to burn when roasted in a pan without protection.
Combining the two methods is the trustiest way to ensure a perfect roast in a reasonable amount of time: Arrange whole beets, tossed with olive oil and a pinch of salt, in a baking dish and then tent with foil. The captured steam will help cook them.
- Give the grill a go
Although an oven is the obvious wintertime appliance choice for roasting, summery sandwiches and salads calls for beets from the grill. Roasting on the grill takes almost exactly the same as cooking in an oven, only instead of using a baking dish, you’ll place the whole beets tossed in olive oil and a few pinches of salt directly on foil, fold the foil into a pouch and seal oiled beets within. It should take about 20 minutes to cook.
- Timing is Everything
Roasting times hinge on variables such as the size of your beets and the strength of your oven: 45 minutes at 375 degrees is a decent rule of thumb, but it’s important to check the beets every 20 minutes or so to ensure they don’t burn or roast down to mush. Unlike a cake or pork barbecue, beets aren’t ruined by a few extra peeks.
- Remove the Peel
The skin that’s so helpful during the roasting process is superfluous for serving. Fortunately, the peel slips right off the beet after it’s cooked. But the peels must be removed soon after roasting–if the beet cools down, its skin will stick. To comfortably handle beets while they’re still warm–and to avoid dying your fingers with purple juice–consider wearing plastic or rubber gloves and rub the beets with paper towels to remove the skins.
Cut in slices or wedges as desired.
Roasted Beets with Goat Cheese and Walnuts
Check out this step-by-step by Chef John: “Beautiful, sweet, twice-roasted beets and baked goat cheese with crunchy nuts and slightly bitter greens is my idea of an easy, healthy, beautiful fall lunch!”
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