When you have a large crop of beets from the garden or farmstand, you don't have time to casually include them in complicated recipes or to frantically figure out how to use them up before they go bad without getting sick of them. You want to make the most of your harvest and to actually enjoy it.
Here at Plant to Plate, we like to keep things simple! Here are some of my favorite ways to use or preserve beets. Most points refer to the roots unless the greens (leaves) are specified.
- Stirfry them with carrots and feta.
- Sauté the roots with tarragon and leafy greens such as spinach, lambsquarter, or even beet greens themselves.
- Slow-cook them with rosemary, apple cider vinegar, and honey. Carrots and/or onions could also be added if desired. Cook the mixture on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours.
- Roast or sauté them and add them to a bowl along with with amaranth and carrots. This mixture can be enjoyed as-is or topped with sesame oil and complementary herbs like ginger, peppermint, spearmint, and/or cilantro.
- Roast them and use them to top a flatbread or pizza. Here are a few suggestions for flatbread or pizza topping combinations with roasted beets:
- Add the greens to egg dishes like omelets and quiches. Beets and chard are different varieties of the same species, so beet greens and chard can be used interchangeably in many cases. See our Simple Uses for Chard article here for more ideas for beet greens.
- Add the greens to stirfry and sautés.
- Add the roots to a galette along with tomatoes.
- Make a simple soup with beets, peaches, and tarragon.
- Add them to other soups and broths. Both the roots and the greens are excellent in these preparations.
- Roast them and make a Simple Salad. Here are a few ideas for Simple Salad combinations with roasted beets:
- Use the greens as part of the Base of an Interesting Salad. (Wondering why I capitalized those letters? Read more about Interesting Salads here!)
- Use the roots as part of the Frame in an Interesting Salad. (Read more about Interesting Salads here.)
- Add them to other salads.
- Make an earthy smoothie with beets (the roots), spinach, and pomegranate.
- Add the greens to other smoothies for a green, nutritious boost.
- Purée them and add the purée to hummus. Alternatively, you could make your own hummus from scratch by puréeing beets along with chickpeas, tahini, and garlic.
- Purée them and add the purée to baba ghanoush. Alternatively, you could make your own baba ghanoush from scratch by puréeing beets along with eggplant, tahini, garlic, and lemon juice or lemon balm.
- Dice and freeze beet roots to save them for later.
- Blanch and freeze beet greens to preserve them. Learn more about blanching here.
- Dehydrate thin slices of the roots to make beet chips.
- Pickle them. Beets are a good candidate for both traditional pickling and quick-pickling, alone or with rosemary, mints, radishes, and/or carrots.
- Dry the greens. Like chard, beet greens can be dried and powdered for later use.
- For sugar beets only, make your own beet sugar. This stretches the simple-use limit a bit, but beet sugar can be made in large batches, making it another great way to use up your sugar beet harvest quickly. The process shares similarities with jam and decoction making with a couple of extra steps.
Further Reading
Growing beets? Check out these quick facts like its best growing conditions, companion plants, and expected yields.
Beets are also featured in these articles:
- Quick Facts: Growing Beets
- How to Preserve Your Harvest: Root Cellar Storage
- How to Preserve Your Harvest: Fermentation
- The Interesting Salad Protocol: How to Make an Interesting Salad