The Beet Secret

How to cook a bunch of beets without going crazy!

We love fresh beets, but the prep and peeling was always a challenge. For a while I was peeling and shredding them, and then a quick steam and yum! But the peeling was tedious and a lot of the actual beet was lost. Shredding them was “hold your breath” time because I was never sure the food processor was going to make it through the hard vegetable.

Then came pressure cooking, but my seven-quart pressure cooker was probably overkill for a three-beet bunch, even if each beet was fairly large. Timing was also a problem.

Boil them? No. !!

I tried microwaving them for a while, but . . . well, I guess we just don’t like things that are cooked in the microwave.

Then – a stroke of genius. One day when I was finishing up the bone broth, it occurred to me that since I already had out the Crock-Pot, why not give that a try.

Yep – that’s the ticket. ;-> If the beets are small, I use the Crock-ette.

Okay – now they are cooked, but there is still that job of removing the peeling.

Two tricks – one if they are hot; and another if they are cold. Often beets are so large that we are lucky to finish one between us, so I usually have one hot one to deal with, and then two cold ones at subsequent dinners.

When hot, let it cool just a bit so it doesn’t burn your hands, and then run the cold water on it while you get the skin off. It should quickly slip off, I presume because of the disparity in temperatures.

Conversely, if the beet is cold, run warm water on it.

Of the two, the warm water on the cold beet works the best.

They taste totally like fresh using the water and butter method I mentioned in the comments of the Cream of Broccoli Soup blog entry.