Basics of Cooking with Beets

cooking with beets

Do you eat beets? If so, you have likely encountered some challenges with cooking beets. So keep reading to learn about the basics of cooking with beets.

Why Beets? This is the first question I think needs to be answered before even talking about the various ways to cook with beets. Beets are very good for your liver and kidneys. They can be used to cleanse and detox your body. They are also very high in anti-inflammatory minerals and should be a regular part of a healthy diet. This is especially true if you have an auto-immune condition, which if you are reading this blog then you probably do since that is the audience for this blog. Learn about the health benefits of beets here. As you have probably noticed from that article, beets contain some minerals that many people don’t get enough of such as iron, potassium and B9. Making sure to eat beets on a regular basis can help make sure you do get enough.

Sauteing Beets- This is probably the most common method of cooking with beets. At least I know that this is how I cook beets the most often. This is my favorite way to cook beets. I like to chop them up into smaller pieces and saute them with beet greens, or spinach, or kale and then eat them with some chicken or turkey and some potatoes or sweet potatoes. The main trick to making this cooking method work is to chop the beets up into small enough pieces. Beets can be difficult to cook all the way through and the larger the pieces the more this is the case.

Boiling Beets- This is my least favorite method however, it can work well. The biggest problem I’ve encountered with boiling beets is that they can get mushy really easily if you use too much water, and they can burn if you don’t use enough. I find that the best bet is to use about one cup of water per large beet or half a cup per small beet and then to monitor them carefully as they cook.

Using a Crock Pot to Cook Beets- This is the easiest and quickest since you can just put them in with some water on low and cook them all day. However, they can also get too mushy this way so you have to limit the water and be careful.

Using an Air Fryer- This is a more unique way of cooking with beets however, it makes the nice and crispy like fries and they are delicious this way. The biggest secret to making this a success, is to slice them into thin pieces and to use the right oil. Olive oil is my favorite.

Juicing Beets- This is another way that can be a good idea especially if you don’t really like the taste of them. You can juice 1 beet with an apple and some carrot and or celery and that makes a nice good tasting and healthy juice.


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