Learn how to roast beets perfectly every time! My recipe is easy to make, and the roasted beets are always tender and flavorful. A delicious side dish!
This roasted beets recipe is one of my go-to side dishes in the fall and winter. It’s delicious—the beets come out perfectly tender with a concentrated sweet and earthy flavor. It’s also really easy to make. Just wrap the beets in foil with a drizzle of olive oil, and roast until soft!
The roasted beets are wonderful on their own, seasoned simply with salt and pepper, or dressed up more with citrus juice, herbs, or balsamic vinegar. Serve them with any weeknight dinner, or add them to a holiday meal. These oven roasted beets keep well for days in the fridge, so they’re great for making ahead.
How to Roast Beets
If you’ve never roasted beets before, you won’t believe how easy it is! You can find the complete recipe at the bottom of this post, but here’s a step-by-step overview of how it goes:
First, preheat the oven to 400°F.
Then, prep the beets. Slice off the lush tops (use them to make this sautéed beet greens recipe!), and scrub the beets well.
Is it better to peel beets before or after roasting?
I like to peel beets after roasting.
It makes the prep for this roasted beets recipe quick and easy, and once the beets are cooked, the skins slip right off!
The skins also help hold in the beets’ natural moisture as they roast. With this method for how to roast beets, they come out perfectly moist and tender.
Wrap each beet in aluminum foil with a drizzle of olive oil and pinches of salt and pepper.
Place the foil-wrapped beets on a baking sheet.
Roast until fork-tender. The exact timing will depend on the size and freshness of your beets. Small beets may cook in as little as 35 minutes, while large beets may take an hour or longer!
Unwrap the beets and set them aside to cool.
When they’re cool to the touch, use your hands to slip off the skins.
- Tip: I like to do this step under running water for easy cleanup!
So easy!
How to Store Roasted Beets
I don’t recommend roasting most vegetables in advance, but roasted beets are an exception.
They keep well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, and you can serve them chilled or reheat them in the microwave.
You can also freeze roasted beets for up to 3 months!
How to Serve Roasted Beets
Use the cooked beets in any recipe that calls for roasted beets, such as this beet salad or beet hummus, or serve them as a simple, delicious side dish on their own. Slice and season them with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt, or dress them up with any of these garnishes:
- Drizzles of sherry or balsamic vinegar
- A splash of fresh lemon juice or orange juice
- Lemon or orange zest
- Chopped fresh herbs like fresh thyme, parsley, or chives
- Toasted nuts like walnuts or pistachios
- Crumbled feta or goat cheese
If I’m making this recipe for a special occasion, I often turn it into a larger composed side dish. I serve the beets alongside orange segments on a bed of peppery greens like watercress or arugula. I add drizzles of fresh orange and lemon juice, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar and top it all off with goat cheese and toasted walnuts. It’s always a hit!
How do you like to serve oven roasted beets? Let me know in the comments!
More Favorite Beet Recipes
If you love these roasted beets, try one of these fresh beet recipes next:
- Roasted Root Vegetables
- Roasted Golden Beets
- Kale Salad
- Roasted Beet Salad
- Beet Hummus
- Quinoa Burger
- Sautéed Beet Greens
- Or any of these 15 Fresh Beet Recipes!
Want more roasted veggies? Try my roasted broccoli, roasted cauliflower, roasted Brussels sprouts, or roasted carrots recipe next!
Roasted Beets
Ingredients
- 6 medium beets, tops removed, scrubbed well
- Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Place each beet on a piece of foil. Drizzle generously with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wrap the beets in the foil, place on a baking sheet, and roast for 35 to 60 minutes, or until fork-tender. The timing will depend on the size and freshness of the beets.Â
- Remove the beets from the oven, remove the foil, and set aside to cool. When the beets are cool to the touch, peel off the skins. I like to hold them under running water and slide the skins off with my hands.
- Cut or slice the beets and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper, toss, and serve. Find more serving suggestions in the blog post above.
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It is not necessary to wrap the beets in foil.
Just place the beets in a pan (i like stainless )
Add a Tbs or so of water cover the pan with a lid and roast as directed. It works great and peeling off the skin is easy.
I do not recommend cooking with al foil.
Just FYI, National Institute of Health says cooking with aluminum foil leaches aluminum into food, which is not recommended for children.
Peeled, cold, with crumbled chevre and toasted walnuts. Maybe a balsamic vinaigrette drizzle.
Why peel them? I cook and eat beets the same way as a baked potato. Olive oil, salt and eat it all.
It took me about the same length of time to cook them, but other than that the recipe is great! There’s no need to peel them at all.
Peeling afterwards is the best way to go
Tasty but I recommend peeling beforehand. Was quite the battle and mess trying to get the beet skins off after roasting, they did not slip right off.
Hi Svea, Glad you enjoyed the beets! We generally find that beets are easier to peel after roasting, but you can of course peel them before or use a vegetable peeler to remove the skins from the cooked beets if you prefer.
When the beets are roasted and still warm, wrap a paper towel around them and just squeeze and pull. The skin should come right off and your hands don’t get messy. It should literally take less than 5 seconds per beet.
Received red beets (with the greens attached in my CSA box) and had no idea what to do with them and your recipes were the first to pop up in my search. I used the greens in your sauteed beet greens recipe and roasted the beets for this recipe. Fabulous and unique recipe and very tasty! I look forward to using more of your recipes with the vegetables I’ll get this summer. Thank you so much!
I’m so glad you enjoyed your beets and their greens!
I rarely mix fruits with veggies in same meal – except for a couple recipes my mother made. I have some awesome organic mandarin type oranges. My local farmer sold his red beets before I got my order in, so it will be orange beets with little oranges perhaps with cilantro as it’s the only fresh herb I have and I might try some sweet marjoram I grew this year as I’ll be de-twigging it today.
5 stars reduced to 4 stars for your use of foil! With the cookware suppliers you have I’m surprised you are wasting foil. I have (old) lidded glass Pyrex for things like this. I wish people would ask glassware companies to bring back the glass lids with their bakeware instead of plastic lids. Thing is, glass would cut into their profit margin. Plastic is not cheap in the long term, and I’m pretty sure the aluminum industry wants to keep people gobbling up foil in their kitchens. I use less than 5% of the foil I used to since a friend told me about parchment over 10 years ago, and it’s usually for covering a dish to bake it. Parchment has temperature limitations sometimes but I’ve found reducing cooking heat rarely makes enough difference to a recipe that I revert to foil. Recently I switched parchment to a brand that claims it composts. Please consider our planet as you move on with your recipes. Thank you.
Aloha Wondo- I just wanted to thank you for your comment that was unfortunately ignored. I appreciate you bringing up a way to save the Earth a bit more. It can be such a simple solution that most completely ignore & will have great effects on our future & Environment. I first learned of this at 17 when I got a job at the Hard Rock Cafe Honolulu & at age 50 now, still do what I can to be more conscious. We have a long ways to go here in America, but I also believe every bit counts. Mahalo & Have a lovely week. ?
Great recipe, my only suggestion is for large beets to take an hour while smaller ones can take 45 minutes.
Can you marinade the beets a day ahead?
Yep! Absolutely, they’re great with extra time to marinade.
These sound delicious. Willl they pair with a braised chicken & mushrooms recipe?
Made this as a thanksgiving side this year, it was a huge hit! The beets were so flavorful. The citrus, plus arugula, pistachios, and a little goat cheese all really came together.
Hi Rachel, I’m so glad it was a hit!
I made double the recipe for Christmas dinner. Who knew so many of my friends love beets. This dish got rave reviews. I used red and yellow beets, balsamic vinegar and the Maldon salt.
I’m so glad everyone loved the beets!
Made this salad tonight. Added grapefruit , goat cheese and walnuts. Lovely for summer dinner. Don’t forget the crispy bread and white wine
Hi Diana, I’m glad you enjoyed the beets 🙂
I love beets. They’re one of the first things I look for when checking out salad bars. They’re so sweet — this recipe for roasted beets seems like it’ll bring out even more sweetness in the beets!
This is one of my favorite salads to order in a restaurant so I was happy to have this recipe. I did slice my beets and I used goat cheese and arugula. it was a big hit. I think next time I will do it in chunks rather than slicing.
Hi William, I’m so glad to hear it was a hit!
This sounds wonderful. I like the simplicity and the combination of flavors.
I LOVE roasted beets, but have never paired them with citrus! Thanks for the great idea!