Originally published on October 3, 2015
Beets might not be the sexiest vegetable in the garden, but I love ‘em. They have a sweet flavour that becomes so intense when you roast them, and they’re so versatile. My mom knows how I feel about this veggie that turns everything it touches purple, which is why on her last visit, she hauled up 20 pounds of them – all for me!!! Hey, thanks mom!
Now, as much as I love the beet, there’s no way I could ever eat that many before they started to turn on me. So, I had to freeze them. And of course, I couldn’t just throw those two huge bags into my freezer and hope for the best – even the most earnest prayers wouldn’t keep those beets nice for me. No, before freezing, roasting was in order. The good news is, it’s super simple.
(My side note on buying beets – wait until this time of the year. My mom said she got each 10 pound bag for just 2 bucks! Now that’s beets on a budget!)
- 1 10-pound bag of beets
- 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
- Salt
- Pepper
Directions:
1.) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Scrub the beets and trim them.
2.) Place the beets in a large bowl and toss them with the vegetable oil, salt and pepper. Some like to add aromatics such as rosemary, and add them if you like. I never know what I’ll end up doing with my beets once they’re frozen so I like to keep them as plain as possible, adding flavours when I actually go to cook with them.
3.) Before you roast beets, you have to cover them in aluminum foil so that they retain their moisture during cooking, and that aluminum foil needs to seal them pretty well. To do this, you can individually wrap every beet, but that can take a lot of time, and a lot of foil, when you have 10 pounds of beets like I did. If you’d rather, lay a piece of foil on the bottom and up the sides of a casserole dish. Place the beets on top of the foil and then fold the foil over as many of the beets that you can. Then lay another piece of foil on top and crimp the sides of each piece of foil together to form a large packet.
4.) Place the beets into the oven and bake for about an hour, until they are fork-tender.
5.) Remove beets from oven and carefully remove aluminum foil. Let cool until you are able to handle them. Then, you can use a paring knife to remove the skin, but they should also slip right off pretty easily. You can also use gloves, if you don’t wish to turn your hands purple after just one beet.
6.) Once the beets are peeled, you can freeze them whole, cut them into chunks or slices before freezing, or eat as a delicious side dish!