Beetroot or beets (Beta vulgaris) are colourful, sweet root vegetables with purple-green variegated leaves that originated in the Mediterranean basin. Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations used the leaves from wild ancestors as a culinary herb and medicine, but the Romans were the first to cultivate beets for their edible root. By the end of the 15th century, beets had spread throughout Europe, being consumed for both their leaves and roots. Today they are popular in soups, salads, pickles and juices.
Although similar in shape to other root vegetables like radishes and turnips, beets are not botanically related. There are three basic varieties of Beta vulgaris: chard, grown specifically for its leaves; beets, grown for their stout round roots; and sugar beets, grown for making sugar from their long, thick root.
Types of beets:
The first type of beet that generally come to mind are the rich ruby-red ones. Red beets are most known for staining everything they touch a deep pink. They are widely available and often come in bunches with the leaves still attached. Red beets are the sweetest of the fresh beets and are most often served boiled, roasted or added to soup.
Yellow or golden beets have a natural pigment that gives them a bright yellow flesh, but the colour doesn’t bleed or stain like red beets. They are a little less sweet than red beets and have a mellow, earthy flavour. They add a beautiful golden yellow pop to a tray of roasted vegetables.
Chioggia or candy cane beets are a specialty Italian variety with a distinct red and white striped pattern running through their root. The pigment from these beets doesn’t stain or bleed like red beets but it often fades or even disappears during cooking.
Sugar beets look nothing like their rich purple cousins, and like sugar cane, are one of a few common sources of table sugar. Learn more about how they’re grown on Canadian farms in Alberta and Ontario.
How to buy:
Beets are sold in bunches with their leaves attached, or in bulk where they have been topped to prevent dehydration. Bunching beets are usually fresher than bulk beets as the first sign of aging is wilting leaves.
Choose small to medium-sized, firm beets with rich colour and clean, unblemished skin. Look for beets that are 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7.5 cm) in diameter. Larger beets will have a tough woody centre.
The thin, pointy taproot should still be attached. Hairy taproots on larger beets can be an indication of toughness. The outer skin should be smooth with a suede-like nap.
How to store:
Refrigerator:
Beets can stay fresh for up to three weeks when kept loosely in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator.
Remove leaves 2 inches (5 cm) above the root because they spoil much faster than the beets themselves and continue to draw moisture from the root. You can also use the beet leaves in soup or a salad.
Store in a loosely closed plastic bag for up to 2 weeks. Don’t wash until you’re ready to use them.
Freezer:
Raw beets don’t freeze well. To freeze cooked beets, wash and trim the beets, leaving a ½ inch (1 cm) stem. Boil whole beets, covered, until tender. Slip off the skins once cool. Slice or chop and store in resealable plastic bags for up to 1 year.
Pantry:
Beets pickle amazingly well as the compounds that give them their rich colour stabilize in vinegar and help them retain their vibrant red. Pickled beets will keep well in your pantry for over a year.
How to Prepare:
Beets are often boiled or added to soups. The Eastern European vegetable-based Borscht is probably the most famous beet recipe. As well, their high sugar content makes beets caramelize wonderfully when roasted or baked in the oven.
Cooked beets can be served cold in salads or hot as a side dish. Here are a couple of recipes to get you started:
Healthy Borscht
This Healthy Borscht is a hearty main dish that needs only a salad, bread and a glass of milk to complete the meal.
Beet and Pomegranate Salad with Lemon Poppy Seed Dressing
This is the perfect salad to serve in the winter for all of the big feast days like Christmas and New Year’s.
TIP: Prevent your red beets from “bleeding” while they cook by twisting off the leaves and leaving 1-2 inches (2.5 to 5cm) of the stem behind. It also helps to leave the skin on while cooking beets as this holds in the red pigments.
Boil your beets until tender and then peel off the skin and dice or grate them before adding them to a soup or salad, or serve them with butter and salt.
Tips to Prevent Food Waste
Use the beet greens in soups, such as borscht. And, if you have beets that are a little soft and soon-to-be-tossed, boil them until tender and slip off their skins when cool. Place them into a blender or food processor (you may need to add a little water) and blend until smooth. Use the purée for risotto or add to chocolate cake batter. You can also freeze beet purée in an airtight container for up to 2 months. – Renée Kohlman
Among other things, beets can be fermented to make beetroot wine or dehydrated for beet crisps. The colour is also extracted as an edible pigment for tinting other foods, like pasta, sauces and tomato paste, jams, jellies, desserts and breakfast cereals.
Nutrition Facts:
Beets contain a significant amount of vitamins A and C, calcium, iron, phosphorus and potassium. Not only are they colourful and full of flavour, but they are also rich in antioxidants, folic acid and fibre. Beet greens are high in Vitamin A.
In addition to these valuable nutrients, they contain powerful antioxidants called betalains that are currently being investigated as potential cancer-fighting agents. Beets get their red colour from betalains. During the 19th century, women used red beet juice to stain their cheeks and lips, which inspired the saying “red as a beet.”
How They Are Grown:
Beets are a cool-weather biennial plant that grows well in Canada’s temperate climate zones. Although there is not a large production in Canada, the majority of our fresh beets are grown in Quebec and Ontario.
If you’ve planted beets in your garden, you might be familiar with their larger-sized seeds. However, these are not actually seeds – they are small fruit capsules called nutlets that contain 1 to 4 smaller beet seeds inside them. Farmer’s plant nutlets in fertilized rows in the spring once there is no danger of frost.
Three weeks after planting farmers ‘thin’ the plants by removing up to half of the beet plants. This process creates more space between the plants, allowing the remaining roots enough room to reach their optimal size. The thinned plants are sometimes sold as baby beets or for their tender immature leaves. Otherwise, they are composted or fed to livestock.
Beets prefer well-worked soil that is free of rocks and large stones because they are a taproot vegetable that grows downwards. Beet fields need constant moisture so the beets don’t split so they are often irrigated. The soil can’t be too rich either (sandy soil is best) or the beets will produce forked roots, or go to seed and stop putting energy into their roots.
Beets can be harvested at any time during their growth period. The only difference will be the size and sweetness of the root. Canadian beets are mostly hand-picked by skilled labourers, but some larger operations use mechanical harvesters that dig up the beets, shake off the dirt and trim the leaves for bulk sales or processing.
Bunched beets are twist tied together in the field by workers who gather 3 to 6 similar-sized beets together at a time. They are then transported to the processing facility in totes.
At the processors, the beets are submerged in water to cool them and wash off the dirt. Removing this ‘field heat’ increases their shelf life significantly. After washing, the beet leaves are trimmed and composted. Then the beets are packaged in appropriate-sized boxes and stored in a temperature-controlled room or walk-in cooler before being shipped to the grocery store.
Canadian Crop is Available: August to March
Grown in:
- 5000 acres of beets grown in Canada in 2021. 61,000 lbs total – 17,000 lbs in ON, 38,000 in QC
- Sugar beet production in ON and AB.
Industry Websites
Fun Facts
- Beets are considered an aphrodisiac by many cultures. Frescos of beets decorated the walls of brothels in Pompeii and the greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, ate beets to enhance her appeal. In reality, beets are a natural source of tryptophan and betaine which promote feelings of well-being. Beets are also an excellent source of boron – a trace mineral that increases the level of sex hormones in the body.
- It takes 4 times less water to get sugar from sugar beets than it does from sugar cane. Today, 20% of the world’s sugar comes from sugar beets.
- Betalains are the natural red pigments found in beets. After eating beets, these pigments produce red or pink urine (called beeturia) in about 10%-14% of people.
- Beet pulp – a byproduct of beet and sugar beet processing, is used as an animal feed. There is also a variety of yellow beets that are too fibrous and tough for human consumption and are grown primarily as cattle fodder