Roasting Beets cannot be Beat

The thought of roasted beets with a little vinegar, olive oil and salt makes me salivate--seriously.  I am sure there are a lot of you out there who do not share this reaction to beets. This is too bad.  I feel beets, like so many other vegetables, were given to children in the most undesirable manner, so the lure of this delicious root vegetable will forever elude them. A neglected vegetable served to our very young can make for a life-long distaste for that vegetable. Beets fall under this sad category. Give roasted beets a chance, and you too may drool at the thought of your next beet.

Roasted Beets

Pulled fresh beets out of the garden, trimmed off the greens(these are edible too) and rinsed.  I spray two large sheets of heavy duty foil with nonstick spray, and I wrap the beets into a pouch and place on a pan.

 I roasted  these in my Breville oven at 400 degrees for an hour. You could do these on your gas grille as well. Test the beets in an hour, but depending on the size of your beets, they may need another ten minutes or so. Test the beets with an oven mitt and give them a squeeze.  A slight give but still firm will make for a tasty beet. Better to take them out sooner rather then over-done.  Take them out of the oven and slice slits in the foil to release the steam and to help them cool.

Once cooled, don some plastic gloves and peel each one. You won't even need a knife for this. 

The peels come right off. 

Slice or cube the beets. Here I use my handy egg slicer from Pampered Chef. 

Toss the beets with a little olive oil, your vinegar of choice and salt and pepper. Now taste a slice while it's still warm...you are loving your beets now. Notice my salad jar to the left?  It's awaiting the beets, of course.