Cook whole beets faster than ever before with this Instant Pot Beets recipe. Check out the time chart with ideal cook times for small, medium, and large beets. Use cooked beets as a side dish, salad topping, in smoothies, baking, and more.
Beets are a delicious, nutrient packed vegetable. Beetroots are good source of fiber, antioxidants, folate, potassium, iron, manganese, and vitamin C. They are gluten free, vegan, and paleo.
Beets have a slightly earthy flavor which almost completely mellows out while cooking. Roasted beets especially have a deliciously sweet flavor, but you don't always have an hour to spare for preparing your beets. This is where the Instant Pot comes in so handy again. Pressure cooking whole beets takes only 12-25 minutes depending on their size.
Ingredients
This is a single ingredient recipe aside from the water needed for steaming.
- Beets - use any type: red beets, golden beets, candy cane beets etc.; as many or few as you like
- Water - for steaming
Instructions
Follow this step by step guide for cooking beets in the Instant Pot:
Wash and scrub your beets. Then trim off the leaves (if attached)
Fill your Instant Pot with water and insert a trivet
Place beets on top of the trivet, close lid and pressure cook according to time chart below
Quick release the pressure afterwards and let cooked beets cool until safe to
handle
Cut off top and root end from cooled beets
Then use (gloved) hands to simply peel off the skin
Hint: Use rubber gloves to keep your hands from getting stained pink. Also avoid your good wooden cutting board. Plastic cutting boards seem less likely to get permanent beet stains.
Time Chart
Try to cook only beets of the same size together.
| Beet size: | Beet Diameter: | Cook time*: |
| Small | 1-2 inches | 12-14 |
| Medium | 2-3 inches | 16-18 |
| Large | over 3 inches | 20-25 |
*second/higher number denotes cook time for high altitude
Equipment
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To make this Instant Pot beets recipe you'll need an Instant Pot or similar electric pressure cooker. I've been using the 6-Quart Instant Pot DUO 7-in-1 for the last 6 years.
You also need a trivet, also called a steam rack, to suspend the beets over the water for steaming. Most pressure cookers will come with one, but you can also purchase it separately. A steamer basket can be used too.
Storage
Whole cooked beets last refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 week. You can also freeze cooked beets for up to 8 months in a freezer-safe bag or container. After thawing they will still taste like freshly steamed.
Top tip
Don't waste the green beet leaves if yours come with them attached. Use them in the same way as you would spinach. Small tender leaves are great raw in salad. Mature ones are great as sautéed beet greens.
FAQ
Scroll up to the time chart for the best pressure cook times for small, medium, and large beets. High altitude cooking times are included too.
Steaming and roasting are both great beet cooking methods. In neither are the beets submerged in water which might wash off some of the nutrients. Roasted beets have a deliciously sweet and caramelized flavor, but take a long time. Steamed beets are also delicious and cook much faster, especially if pressure steaming as outlined in this post.
An electric pressure cooker like the Instant Pot is not safe to use for canning. For that you need a pressure canner. However, you can prepare your beets by steaming in the Instant Pot as described in this post. Then pack them hot in to canning jars and follow beet pressure canning instructions from the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
Related
Looking for more beet recipes? Try these:
Recipe
Instant Pot Beets Recipe
Equipment
- 1 trivet or steam rack
Ingredients
- 4-10 beets or as many as you like and can fit in a single layer
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Wash and scrub the beets. If leaves are attached, trim them off with a knife leaving about ½ inch of the stems.
- Pour 1 cup of water in the inner liner of the pressure cooker. Insert a trivet/steaming rack.
- Arrange the beets on top of the trivet in a single layer. Overcrowding may increase cook time or cause uneven doneness.
- Close the pressure cooker lid and turn the pressure valve to sealing position. Cook the beets on high pressure according to size: small beets 12-14 minutes, medium beets 16-18 minutes, large 20-25 minutes.
- When the cook time is up, quick release the pressure by turning the pressure valve to venting position. Open the lid and let the cooked beet cool until safe to handle.
- They should be fork tender now and a small paring knife should easily cut all the way to the center. If not, pressure cook for another minutes or two.
- To peel the beets, first cut off the top and root end. Now you can easily slide off the cooked peel by hand. Use rubber gloves if you don't want to stain your fingers.
- For an easy side dish, dice or slice the cooked beets and simply dress with a little salt and pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
- Store whole cooked beets in the fridge for up to 1 week. Frozen for up to 8 months.
Nutrition
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