How to Roast Beets + Recipes - Caroline Kaufman, MS, RDN

Today’s Technique Tuesday post is a one-ingredient wonder: roasted beets! Perfect for sides, dips, salads, & sammies. The Soul of Health shows us her favorite, “easy peasy” way to roast up beets, including tips on how to keep your hands (and kitchen) red-streak free.

Fall gives us a challenge in beets – something soft and sweet is buried inside that tough, grouchy-looking root vegetable. When you’re home for a few hours, consider accepting the challenge. Coax the candy out of beets with an hour in the oven, and let nature take care of the magic.

Next week, Abigail and I will be back with another Technique – this time, straight from my kitchen.

For more delicious recipes (and inspiring positivity, bits of wisdom, and health tips), check out The Soul of Health on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

****************************************************************************

Happy Happy Technique Tuesday!!

Can you believe it’s here again and already week #4?! Just in case you missed the first three weeks of Technique Tuesday, just click on the links below for each fun and simple technique. Oh and if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my ‘Technique Tuesday’ P.I.C. (Partner in Crime) on her pages: Sweet Foodie (blog) and Caroline Kaufman Nutrition (Facebook Page).

Here we are back in 2010, wine tasting at a vineyard in Virginia! :)

Week 1: Simple Roasted Almonds via Soul of Health (that’s meeee)
Week 2: Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs via Sweet Foodie/Caroline Kaufman Nutrition
Week 3: Baked Spaghetti Squash via Steamy Kitchen

Now for this weeks technique; one of my all time favorite vegetables.

BEETS

Delicious and nutritious beets!

Roast Beast… I mean Roasted Beets

I love beets for the amazing flavors they bring to different foods and how they compliment so many dishes. They are high in many vitamins and minerals (potassium, iron, folate and Vitamin C – just to name drop a few), and 1 cup contains 4 grams of good-for-your-gut fiber and 2 grams of protein. Not bad, huh?

Easy-Peasy Roasted Beets:
Learned from The Kitchn

Ingredients:
Beets
Yes, you do need JUST beets for this

Instructions:

1. Heat the Oven to 400°F. The cool thing: this is a total flexible cooking temperature; if you need the oven for something else, beets can be cooked at that temperature. Just remember this will vary the cooking times (beets will cook more slowly at lower temperature and more quickly at higher temperatures). Obvi

2. Prepare the Beets: Cut off the beet leaves close to the tip of the beet, leaving just enough to grip.

3. Scrub and rinse the beets thoroughly – no need to dry them or get beet stained towels. Wrap them loosely in foil – For smaller beets, wrap altogether in a foil house. With the larger ones, it’s easiest to roast beets individually or in a studio apartment. Funny? Stupid?

Fold the edges up and place another sheet on top and fold. Creating a ‘beet house’ if you will:)

4. Roast beast… I mean roast beets for 50-60 minutes. Check the beets about halfway through to make sure things are looking good. I like to move them around so the bottoms don’t get scorched. Also, if they are looking a little dry, sprinkle with water — No one likes a dry beet Rewrap the ‘house’ and return to oven. Beets are done when a fork or knife slides easily to the middle of the beet. Times vary so make sure to check them.

5. Peel (Without getting hands TOTALLY blood red): Let the beets cool enough to handle. Hold one of the beets in a paper towel and use the edges of the towel to rub the skin away. The skin peels away fairly easily and if it doesn’t the beets need to go back in the house > oven to cook for a little longer. Peel the remaining beets. Storage: Beets can be stored whole or sliced for up to a week in the refrigerator.

DONE! Roasted Beets are one of my kitchen staples: I add them to salads, smoothies, or just eat them by themselves! Not sure what to do with these lovely beets? Here are 3 of my favorite recipes using ROASTED BEETS!

1. Roasted Beet Bruschetta via Mountain Mama Cooks OR