When I was at the farmers market last weekend I saw some awesome looking beets.
I had fun standing at the table and snapping pictures of beets.
Oh yes, that’s me, with my big honkin’ camera, just taking pictures of dirty root vegetables. Fun times!
I took all the pictures very fast. On the fly in less than 30 seconds because I haven’t lost all shame. Plus, I didn’t want to “hog” the area from other shoppers in case they wanted to get rooty.
But aren’t these pretty?
Many of you told me when I posted about Beet Juice the other day that you had never tried beets, or only had tried canned beets and weren’t impressed. Nor should you be. Canned beets scare me.
It’s time to channel your inner beet lover and turn you all into beet fans with this recipe.
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Caramelized Ginger & Olive Oil Roasted Beets
Peel 4 to 6 beets with a vegetable peeler (wear rubber gloves unless you enjoy the reddish pink cuticles and fingerprint look for a week).
Note: Some people roast their beets with the skin on. I do not because I never feel like I can get beets clean enough and I’d rather peel them than eat dirt. My personal preference, only.
Slice the beets into wedges about the size of an apple wedge. Raw beets are very firm. Much firmer than an apple. More like a sweet potato so use a sharp knife and be careful.
Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil and place the beet wedges in the pan. Don’t skip the foil. Clean up will go from an epic chore to easy-peasy by using foil.
Drizzle with olive oil (about 2-3 tbsp) or if you like coconut oil, use that! Hemp seed, grapeseed, canola, and other oils may work also.
Sprinkle 1 tsp ground ginger over the top of the beets (optional but recommended)
Add salt and pepper, to taste (optional)
Roast at 350F for 75 minutes (possibly a bit longer), flipping once halfway through. It is a bit tedious to flip them over one-by-one but you will get a nicer carmelization on each edge and it will be worth it. If the beets seem dry mid-way through cooking when you’re flipping them, add a bit more oil.
You will know the beets are done when they have carmelized, are a bit black-ish or dark around the edges, and are fork tender (like a cooked potato or cooked carrot).
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Remember, don’t skip the rubber gloves when you’re working with beets.
Some holistically-minded moms I know who refuse to buy Easter egg coloring dye simply dye their eggs with beet juice. Yes, strong stuff.
Red hands though may be worth it because beets that have been roasted this way are so naturally sweet you think you’re eating candy. In that sense, beets remind me of dates and my Date Recipes Post, i.e. Nature’s Candy, because of both of their natural sweetness.
Beets prepared this way are easy, fool-proof, and are similar texture-wise to a roasted a potato, turnip, or carrot (texture-wise) and are nothing like the strange, jiggly-ish, slimy texture of canned beets. Shudder.
Still not convinced you want to try beets on their own?
Mix them into this Ginger Roasted Tri-Color Potatoes recipe and break yourself in slowly. You’ll probably end up picking out the beets and eating them first because they are sweeter and blow potatoes away, in my opinion.
Or add beets to Ginger Coconut Roasted Fennel & Mixed Vegetables
From my last post, Naturally Sweet, I like hearing what everyone’s been eating lately that’s sweet naturally. Like pineapple and mulberries. And lots of pineapple fans, too, apparently.
Questions:
1. Do you like beets?
I asked that question recently, and some of you said yes you love them!
And other people said you haven’t tried them.
And others said you’ve only tried canned and were skeeved out.
I really think roasting is a great way to break yourself into beets if you haven’t had them much previously.
2. Fave way to eat beets?
I prefer most vegetables raw rather than cooked (it’s a texture thing, mostly) but beets are one veggie that I prefer cooked.
I am “okay” with them raw and sliced thinly in a salad (thinly sliced raw beets, thinly sliced raw fennel, and dressed with a citrus vinaigrette like Orange Spice Vinaigrette is a common way to eat them) but I prefer their flavor when cooked and caramelized.
3. Weekend plans? Any Father’s Day plans?
Not sure what we’re doing yet for Father’s Day.
I do have to work all weekend but there will still be time for family fun, some workouts, hopefully some time in the kitchen, and maybe a photography date with my camera.
I’m a veggie lover and I love beets!! canned beets?? grrooowdy! actually any canned veggies scare me! the only canned stuff i usually get are chickpeas and the beans (kidney, canellini etc.)
This recipe looks great!! Beets are my favorite veggie of ALL time (weird and bold statement, I know, haha!).
I am just begging to acquire a taste for beets. Recently I ordered a beet-based juice to drink during a WF trip. Let me just say that when you wake up in the middle of the night thinking you’re peeing blood… very scary moment in your life!
I love roasted beets…cooled just to room temp and then on salad with a little goat cheese (or nut cheese if I’m trying to be totally dairy free that day). I roast them in their skins in foil…and then take a paper towel and slide the skin right off afterward. Enjoy your beets!
Beet juice is crazy strong stuff, it always dyes my wood chopping blocks. The ginger beets sound awesome, great job! Yum!
1. Yes, but they’re hard to work with raw, so I usually end up cooking them.
2. Lately pureed into salad dressings or in juice form.
3. Another Ikea trip to put the finishing touches on the office and who knows for Father’s Day. :-)
I love the line “channel your inner beet lover” :D This recipe is great, as I like roasted beets the most. I like beets in general, but I do not like the pickled ones that don´t taste like real beets anymore!
And personally I couldn´t care less what people might think of me when taking certain pictures. I was once at a farmers market in Kilkenny and I was standing in front of the carrots for at least 15 minutes taking photos! It was worth it :) And I get so lost in taking pictures itself, that I would hardly notice other people´s reactions anyway ;)
Well I just don’t want to be one of those annoying types who thinks their picture is more important than someone’s shopping. But yeah, I get so lost in my own world with my camera..it’s just…”me time” :)
“me time”- that is a lovely definition :) and I totally get your point in not getting in the way of other customers! I certainly won´t ignore or disturb them, either!
I love beets as well. Never cooked them and peeled them – only ate them from the can. My mom used too alot though when I was a child. Great recipe and can’t wait to try them!
I love, love, love roasted beets! I smoked them once before too and they were sooooo good! I need to do that again soon.
I love beets! They’re SO good roasted. I just wish they didn’t stain everything so badly. I hate having wet/dirty hands, so cutting them always makes me cringe. Growing up we always had the canned kind, so I actually thought that’s the only way people ate them until I came across the blog world…
I actually use beets in a pink smoothie from GreenSmoothieGirl.com’s website. Naturally sweet and nicely colourful.
Hadn’t though of using beet juice as a dye. Great idea!
Canned beets? Scaryyyyyyyyyyyy
Beets, bananas, sweet potatoes = nature’s candy
avocados = nature’s buttttter
I love me some beets (although I haven’t cooked golden beets yet)! Fav way to eat them = just like how they serve them when I’m in Greece visiting the fam: boiled & served w/ balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and sea salt!
Weekend plans: Pilates, GRE studying, Little Italy Farmer’s Market, & some hiking with the furball :-)
avocados = nature’s buttttter
that is SO true!
I can’t wait to try I just got beets from my CSA this week!!!!
Yummy! Roasted beets are really are a great way to break into the beet world. It’s almost impossible to roast bad beets. They always turn out delicious even when I forget about them and over bake them. I love them in salads during the summer time!
Beets are one of those things I taught myself to like, I am a big fan now but it took some time. Trader Joe’s has a great beet salad for about $5 dollars that save the beet stained hands.
Nice pictures Averie!
They look really tasty. I like them when they’re grilled :)
thank you :)
Though made beets many times before, never made them with ginger. What a great idea!! I will definitely try it next time when I pick up beets at the farmer’s market this weekend.