How to cook beets and how to do it right?

Beetroot is a tasty and healthy vegetable, and to delight yourself and loved ones with a variety of dishes from it, you should know how and how much to cook beets.

What is this vegetable good for?

Borsch, various salads, herring under a fur coat, vinaigrette are only the most common dishes with beets. Why is she so popular?

This vegetable contains proteins, sugars, organic acids, vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, copper, iron, iodine, zinc and many more trace elements. It stimulates blood formation and the metabolic process, it is considered very beneficial for the liver. Raw beet juice is recommended for hypertension and other problems of the cardiovascular system, recovery from severe illness and exhaustion, and boiled root vegetables and its decoction are an excellent laxative and diuretic.

In a number of fruits and vegetables, a certain part of vitamins is destroyed by temperature exposure. But the majority of the beneficial substances of beets are not much to heat. And if this raw vegetable or freshly squeezed juice is not to your liking, then you can safely subject it to heat treatment. But you need to know how to cook beets, because it will depend on how many vitamins and trace elements remain in it, how tasty it will turn out.

How to choose a root crop and prepare it for cooking?

Obviously, the cooking time of the vegetable will vary depending on its size. The larger the root crop, the longer it will take to cook. In the process of cooking, it does not matter, in water or steamed, beets are very colored. Therefore, it must be prepared separately from other products, unless, of course, you want them to acquire a rich red-cherry color.

1. You should choose a healthy and whole-looking root crop of medium size. Too large may not boil inside, and little will remain of the small after peeling. But how to cook beets quickly, if there was no suitable small vegetable in size? Large root crops can simply be cut into several not too small parts.
2. The most pleasant to taste and the youngest root crops of elongated form are most quickly boiled.
3. Beets are boiled in a peel. But, of course, all dirt from the root crop must be washed before cooking - this is convenient to do with a sponge for washing dishes or a brush of medium hardness.
4. When cooking in water, the top and spine are not recommended to be cut, otherwise during the preparation process the vegetable will lose a considerable part of the juice, and with it taste and nutrients. When steaming, you can trim the excess parts.
5. If the vegetable was purchased with a still young tops, then do not rush to throw it. Leaves and stems contain no less vitamins than root crops. Botva is an excellent ingredient for salads, borsch and various soups.
6. In the process beetroot storage gradually losing water. However, it does not deteriorate and practically does not lose useful qualities, but it becomes more lethargic and dry. To restore its juicy taste, it must be scalded with boiling water before cooking, then pour warm water for a couple of hours and then boil in the same water.

How to cook beets?

The vegetable itself has a sweet taste, and the addition of salt and any seasonings during the cooking process can ruin this taste. In addition, salt water will make the root crop harder, which means that it will cook much longer. It is better to season a ready-made dish.

Depending on the size of the vegetable and the intensity of the fire under the pan, it can cook from half an hour to an hour.Checking the readiness of the root crop is easy - the peel should be easily pierced with a knife or fork.

The smell of beets can not be called unpleasant, but still there are people who really do not like it. To neutralize this smell in the pan or other container with the preparing vegetable, you need to put one or more crusts of bread.

Tip

To peel easily peeled off, it is recommended to put a freshly cooked root crop for 5-10 minutes under cold water.

The water in which the beets were cooked does not have to be poured into the sewer. When ingested separately, it is considered a good diuretic and laxative, and it can also be a good basis for soup.

Multicooking

A slow cooker facilitates the preparation of so many dishes and products. And beets are no exception. In this device, it will cook even faster than on a gas or electric stove - in just 20-30 minutes.

So how to cook beets in a slow cooker? For this, the “soup”, “stewing” or “steaming” modes are suitable. As for cooking in a conventional pan, the vegetable is washed and, if necessary, cut into several parts.

Another way is to bake beets in foil. For this option, it is advisable to take small young vegetables. Before boiling beets in a slow cooker, they thoroughly wash it, sprinkle it with vegetable oil and tightly wrap it with foil. If there is no foil in the house, then, in principle, you can do without it, then the multicooker bowl itself is lubricated with oil. This cooking method will take more time than others - about an hour.

Even less time (25-30 minutes) will be required if you put the root crop in the microwave, after making more holes in it with a fork and wrapping it in a baking bag.

Before deciding how to cook beets in a slow cooker, it is advisable to try all the ways.

How to cook beets in a pressure cooker?

A pressure cooker is a very convenient pan option on the farm. Due to the fact that it practically does not lose heat during cooking, beets will be cooked in it 2-3 times faster than in other ways. The young vegetable will be ready in 10-15 minutes, the older - in half an hour maximum.

Before you quickly cook the beets in a pressure cooker, you need to wash it, add water (not more than 2/3 of the pan volume) and make sure that the pressure relief mechanism is working and the lid is firmly inserted into the pan. So that at the end of cooking, the root crops do not boil too much, the excess steam from the pan must be discarded.

Useful Tips

What is raw, what is cooked beets continues to stain everything in red. If you do not want, for example, the potato in the vinaigrette to be colored as well, then after cutting the beets, it should be abundantly poured with vegetable oil and mixed thoroughly so that it covers all the slices.

Like potatoes, hot beets crumble quite strongly during cutting. For a salad or other dish where it is shredded, it does not really matter. But in order to please the vinaigrette with neat cubes of vegetables, the beets must be cooled at room temperature before being cut for at least a couple of hours.

If for a dish you need to quickly cook several vegetables at once, and the number of pots and place on the stove is limited, then beets can be cooked with carrots. Beets are cooked much longer, so carrots are added only about half an hour before the expected readiness of the latter. Accordingly, in the pan it is on top.

Obviously, there are many ways to properly cook beets. And each housewife decides for herself how to cook beets - in a slow cooker, saucepan, pressure cooker or bake in the microwave.

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