Boiled Beets Recipe

Beets are boiled whole and unpeeled. Scrub them, leave about an inch of stem and the root on, cover them with water and simmer until a knife slides in: 25 to 30 minutes for small beets, 45 to 50 for medium ones. The skins rub off under cold water afterwards. A pound of beets, four medium ones, serves four as a side.

Do beets have to be peeled before boiling?

No. University of Illinois Extension advises washing beets carefully without breaking the skin, because breaks and tears let colour and nutritional value escape. The skin, it adds, rubs away easily once the cooked beets have cooled.

North Dakota State University Extension gives the second rule: leave about an inch of the stem on the beet before cooking, otherwise beets tend to bleed their red colour.

So the knife is needed twice only: before cooking, to cut off the leaves above the stem, and afterwards.

Recipe

Boiled Beets

Whole beets simmered in their skins until tender, peeled and dressed with olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Four servings as a side.

5.0 (1)Print

Prep

5 min

Cook

50 min

Total

1 hr 5 min

Serves

4

Cuisine

American

Ingredients

• 1 pound medium beets
• 2 quarts water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

1. Cut the leaves off the beets, leaving about 1 inch of stem, and leave the root end on. Scrub the beets under running water without breaking the skin.
2. Put the beets in a saucepan and cover them with the water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for 45 to 50 minutes, until a thin knife slides into the largest beet without resistance.
3. Drain the beets and cover them with cold water for 5 minutes, until they are cool enough to handle.
4. Cut off the stem and the root and rub the skins off with the fingers or a paper towel.
5. Cut the beets into wedges or slices and toss them with the olive oil, the vinegar, the salt and the pepper. Serve warm or cold.

Nutrition

Calories:

80

Calculated from the ingredient quantities above using the USDA FoodData Central database, then divided by the number of servings. It is an estimate and will vary with the exact products you use.

How long to boil beets, by size

The Illinois page gives these times for beets cooked in boiling water until tender:

Beets	Diameter	Time
Small	1 inch	25 to 30 minutes
Medium	2 to 2 1/2 inches	45 to 50 minutes

Larger beets take longer; start testing them after an hour. Beets of different sizes cook at different rates, the same page notes, so choose beets of one size or take the small ones out first. They are done when a fork or a thin knife goes in easily.

For beets from the garden, the NDSU column recommends harvesting at golf-ball size or slightly larger, so that they are not woody.

Red hands, red cutting board

Beet juice stains towels, wooden boards and sinks, the Illinois page warns. For hands it recommends salt, which removes the stains from skin. Peeling the beets under running water, or holding them in a paper towel, keeps most of the colour off the fingers. A plate or a plastic board is easier to clean than wood.

One effect is not a stain: after a large portion of red beets, urine can turn pink or red. The NDSU column calls this harmless.

Ways to serve boiled beets

• Warm, as in the card: oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Butter can replace the oil.
• As a salad: cold wedges with crumbled goat cheese or feta and roasted walnuts.
• In a sandwich: thin slices in a pita with falafel and tahini sauce.
• Quick-pickled: cover sliced beets with equal parts of vinegar and water, with a tablespoon of sugar and half a teaspoon of salt per cup of liquid, and refrigerate them overnight.

Golden and striped beets are boiled the same way. The leaves are food as well: the NDSU column suggests rinsing them for salads or sautéing them in a little oil.

Keeping and freezing

Boiled beets keep four days in a closed container in the refrigerator, best without the dressing. For the freezer, Illinois Extension describes the method: cook the beets, cool them promptly in cold water, peel them, cut them into slices or cubes and pack them with half an inch of head space. Frozen that way they keep up to a year.

Boiled beets can be served beside roast meat, for instance a roast rubbed with the pot roast seasoning. Another vegetable side on this site is the Wingstop corn.