Roasted beets are the perfect accompaniment to salads, homemade pizza or even as an appetizer with a good goat cheese. I like to roast a whole bunch of them at once, then I have them in the fridge to do whatever with throughout the week.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
To start, scrub all beets (2-3 pounds) then cut in half and in half again to make wedges (don’t worry about peeling now, that’s easier once they have baked). In a large mixing bowl, toss beets with 1/4 cup olive oil and a generous amount of a good sea salt (I use about 1 tsp). Prepare a baking sheet by lining with a layer of aluminum foil. Spread beets in a single layer on the foil then cover with another piece of foil, sealing the edges. Bake for 1 hour, then remove top layer of foil and bake for another 30 minutes.
Enjoy!
12 Comments
August 25, 2008 at 3:13 pm
[...] these roasted beets the other day. Yummy, but cut the beets up a bit more if you’re starting with big [...]
April 29, 2009 at 3:40 pm
this recipe rocked! so good! used the roasted beets for roasted beet and crumbled goat cheese salad (add a dash of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sprinkle with salt and voila!) and it was a hit. THANK YOU!
October 2, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Thank so much! My husband and I love beets, and found a recipe for a beet and citrus salad, but the directions for roasting the beets was a bit lacking. I tried their way, but being the first time I’ve cooked with fresh beets, it didn’t work.
I’m going to try this!
October 12, 2008 at 7:25 pm
This recipe is fantasic and completely fool proof! Good recipes for fresh beets are so hard to come by and usually require a lot of steps to get them tasting right – not so with this one. It’s great! Anyone who likes beets should give this one a try!!
December 11, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Gotta disagree about pre- vs. post-peeling — would have saved me a lot of time had I peeled the beets ahead of time. I think I ended up wasting more beet, too. Was there some trick I missed?
January 7, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Hi there!
My family went food shopping last week and my youngest son and I were in charge of the fresh vegetables.
While looking at the baby carrots, my son noticed some dirty looking roots with pretty purplish stems and green leaves (okay, they were beets, you got me.) He asked if we could try some. I was mildly surprised, but game.
We selected 4 (you don’t know my kids – I was NOT about to waste money on an experiment!)
As we put them in the cart, I asked a passing shopper, “Do you have any idea how I should cook these things?” She told us that she likes to roast them and then put balsamic vinaigrette dressing on them. “Just scrub them well,” she added in parting.
Well, 4 beets, is one thing, a whole bottle of dressing is another. So we skipped that part.
Today, we decided to go for it. I asked my son to look up beet roasting recipes. In Google, he typed: how do you roast beets
He skipped WAY past the first few results (no offense, huh?) and picked your website!
Well, you state olive oil and REAL sea salt. We didn’t have any of that. But we did get some important preparation tips, including the most important:
Don’t worry about peeling …
We substituted Wesson vegetable oil – common soybean – and REESE imported sea salt which, since it’s imported, can hardly be real, right?
We pretended that everything was olive and real, cut the scrubbed beets into lengthwise quarters and tossed the mixture with two wooden spoons. (So, now my son will know how to “toss” ingredients correctly and not fling stuff around the kitchen.)
With oven preheated, we placed the beets in the electric oven …
… and probably over-cooked them. However.
We started peeling them. It was darn near impossible, because some of those wedges were rather minuscule. I thought about how people say that potato skins have all the nutrients – and tried a wedge with the skin on.
Oh. My. Garlic!
That was the best tasting oil-drenched piece of beet ever! There was a piece of salt stuck to the skin and that was delightful! I will never eat another pickled beet.
Mostly because I hate pickled beets.
I just wanted to share this culinary adventure with you, as a way of saying thanks for having a great recipe and preparation tips.
Just tell everyone to try at least one skin-on wedge. That way, if they like it, they won’t have to fuss with peeling the rest!
Cheers,
Mitch
P.S. My oldest son suggested I stick a fork in them to test for “doneness”. Do you have any tips for cooking time in electric ovens? We took ours out after one hour – 40 minutes covered, 20 uncovered. They did NOT look like your picture
January 9, 2009 at 11:15 am
Your story is great! Thanks so much for sharing.
I like the fork test – a sharp knife also works well.
And I agree – if I can’t get the skin off, just eat it!
Happy cooking and good luck with the rest of the produce section!
February 26, 2009 at 2:25 pm
i always roast the beets whole- i feel like the peeling process is easier, plus, it helps seal everything in a little more.
March 8, 2009 at 3:27 am
This was great! I’ve been looking for a simple, reliable way to prepare beets, and now I have found it. In addition to the olive oil and sea salt, I used balsamic vinegar, rosemary, garlic powder, basil, and sage. So easy and delicious. I just left the skins on and ate them, and I don’t plan to ever bother peeling them again. The skins are yummy too!
March 30, 2009 at 8:47 pm
I don’t peel – I like the skin, but you must scrub well!
June 30, 2009 at 10:20 am
Thanks. I was looking for a beet recipe that didn’t include the words “boil” or “pickle.”
I can’t wait to try it.
July 1, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Thanks for this method! Just bought fresh beets for the first time at Penn Quarter Farmer’s Market.