How to cook beets: useful tips

Beetroot is a healthy, but difficult to prepare product. Often, beginners can’t cook the root crop properly so that it becomes soft, but retains an elastic structure and does not turn into slurry. How to choose a delicious and sweet vegetable? How much to boil the workpiece so that it does not remain too hard and stiff? What to add to cooking water to improve the taste of beets? And how to speed up the preparation of the root crop, but preserve all the useful properties?

Perfect taste and quality

Small and medium vegetables are used for salads, stews and first courses. If the beets are too large and round, then it belongs to the feed type. Such root vegetables are unsweetened and fresh, boil for a long time and contain less vitamins than table options.

The base for the vinaigrette is carefully inspected. Copies with rot, green dots and pale peel should not be bought. A regular beet has a uniform, rich red or burgundy hue. Which varieties are tastier? Round or oblong and flattened? The second. They are juicier and sweeter.

Checking the taste of the workpiece is simple: remove the peel from one vegetable or cut it in half. If the color of the pulp is bright and saturated, the root salad will make the perfect salad. Pale beets are usually fresh and tasteless, similar to grass.

You cannot cook a workpiece with a damaged skin. But what to do with a control copy? Use to make freshly squeezed juice. Or cut into strips and put into a double boiler or slow cooker. Vegetable softens in 20-25 minutes. The blank can be added to a diet salad or beat with a blender with vegetable oil and salt. It will turn out a dietary snack, however, with a minimum amount of vitamin C, because when steam is processed, ascorbic acid evaporates.

Vegetable preparation

Vitamins are found not only in root crops, but also in leaves. The old tops are tough, but the young ones are tender and juicy. Fresh and green tops are not thrown away, but added to cold soups and vegetable salads.

Beetroot harvest is washed under the tap. The peel is gently polished with a soft brush to wash away the adhering ground, but not to damage the top layer. Root crops do not clean before cooking. Washed blanks are placed in a pan and brought to readiness.

Quick way

How to save one and a half hours and get a soft juicy vegetable, in which the peel is removed in a matter of seconds? Take advantage of the secrets of professional chefs. It will take only two ingredients: boiling water and 40-60 ml of vegetable oil. Plus a large pan and bowl of ice.

About 2–5 liters of water are taken on 2-3 medium root crops. If there is a lot of liquid and few products, the moisture evaporates quickly and heats up more. First, oil is poured into the boiling base. Stir, and after 3-5 minutes put the beets. Half an hour is detected, the liquid is drained, and hot root crops are thrown into the ice.

The pulp due to temperature changes remains elastic, but not too hard. And the peel peels off and is easily removed even without a knife. The method has only one minus. Ascorbic acid evaporates due to a sharp change in temperature. But iron, potassium, beta-carotene and calcium remain in boiled beets.

Vinaigrette Option

In order for the root crop to retain its saturated color, it is placed not in hot but in cold water. And add freshly squeezed lemon juice or table vinegar.Acid retains vitamins and coloring matter found in beet pulp. For 3-5 liters of fluid, you need 30-40 ml of the supplement. And to keep the vegetables sweetish, the cooking water is seasoned with 1-2 tbsp. l Sahara.

Washed beets are put in a pan and put on maximum heat. When the liquid base boils, they detect it for 2 hours. The container must be covered with a lid to increase the temperature of water and speed up the preparation of root crops. A match is stuck into the blank. If it easily enters, remove the pan. Beets can be poured with cold water so that the peel is behind the pulp, but this is not a prerequisite.

If you want vegetables to become sweet without sugar and honey, then you need to bake them. First bring to a half-preparedness in boiling water. Then take out and put on paper towels for 5-10 minutes so that they absorb moisture. Half-baked root vegetables are transferred to a foil or sleeve for baking, sent to the oven. Choose a temperature of 190 to 250 degrees. Harvesting will take from 30 to 40 minutes. Old beets come to readiness longer, and young - faster.

Additional tips

1. To preserve vitamins, vegetables are brought to a boil at maximum heat, and then switched to a minimum temperature. The product languishes for 3 to 4 hours, always under the lid.
2. Reduce the cooking time can table salt. 25–35 g of seasoning is added to boiling water, stirred for 5 minutes. Spice purifies water from oxygen, due to which trace elements evaporate. Beets are placed in a salted boiling base. But so that she does not lose the sweet taste, add sugar and a little vinegar.
3. Black or rye bread can remove the characteristic beetroot odor. The crust is put in a boiling base 30-40 minutes before the root crops are ready.
4. Boiled vegetables are stored only under a lid, not longer than 2 days. They quickly lose ascorbic acid and beneficial properties.
5. If the beets become dry and wrinkled, it is not necessary to throw them away. The workpiece is poured with boiling water, and then placed in warm water so that the product swells.
6. The decoction remaining after cooking the root crop can not be poured out, but used as a laxative and diuretic. Just add a pinch of cinnamon or a few tablespoons of lemon juice to the drink.

Beets are cooked in various ways: in a pot, oven, double boiler and even a microwave. The main thing is not to cut the tails and peel during cooking so that the workpiece does not lose vitamins and color. And dip hot root vegetables in cold water or ice. Then the color of the product will be saturated, and the peel will easily separate from the pulp.

Video: how to cook beets quickly