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Beets are a favorite garden crop around here. We love to eat them roasted when they’re fresh but they’re also one of our favorite vegetables to preserve as well. Save some for yourself by using one of or more of these 5 ways to preserve beets.
How to Peel Beets
Beets are one of the few vegetables I peel, thankfully it’s an easy process.
Trim the beets, leaving 1 inch of the leaf stems and 1 inch of the root attached. This prevents too much bleeding. Put the beets into a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and keep boiling for 20 to 30 minutes. Rinse under cool water. Cool just enough to handle. The skins should slip right off with a simple push of the fingers, if they don’t boil for a bit longer.
Save the greens – they can be eaten fresh or preserved too.
1. Pressure Canned
This is the way we preserve beets most of the time. It makes for a quick and easy side dish, mixes well into soups, and purees easily for desserts even.
Beets need to be hot packed. Once the beets are peeled, chop and pack into jars. The beets should still be warm from the boiling.
If they got cold, simply put into a pot and bring to a boil Then pack into jars, topping off with more boiling water. Leave 1 inch of headspace. Process pints for 30 minutes, quarts for 35 at the correct pounds of pressure for your elevation.
A time saving tip – peel and chop the beets one day. Store in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, put the beets into a pot and cover with fresh water.
Bring to a boil and then pack jars and proceed with canning. This can help break up a big task over a couple of days and keep it from becoming overwhelming.
2. Dehydrating
Cook beets until they’re tender in boiling water, 30-45 minutes depending on size. Peel and slice thin. Dry in a dehydrator until brittle. Store in airtight jars.
Don’t forget about the beet greens – dehydrate them, too. Then add the dehydrated greens as a powder to smoothies and soups for a nutritious hit.
3. Freezing
Cook whole beets in boiling water until completely cooked. Peel and freeze whole or chopped.
Again, don’t forget about the greens! Blanch those greens and then freeze to add to soups, smoothies, and more later.
4. Root Cellaring
Leave 2″ of the stems attached but remove the greens. Do not wash. Pack the beets into straw or moist sand and store in a spot with high humidity.
5. Pickled
Pickling beets allows them to be canned in a water bath canner. These can be a mighty tasty addition to salads and make for a great aide dish. A few recipe ideas include:
A version with honey and apple cider vinegar
Another white vinegar and lots of spice
Be sure to make the most of the humble vegetables this year and preserve beets for nutritious eating all year long.
Virtual hug! I love you Kathie! I have SO many huge beets that we were planning for market that I haven’t known what to do with. You just saved me the stress of wasting good food!
Yay – enjoy! Beets are some of our favorite and thankfully ours are doing well in the cold nights we’ve had all summer unlike the tomatoes, ha.
I have a dehydrator and would love to do up some beets that way. How do you reconstitute the beets and
how do you use them afterwards? Thanks for all the great ideas.
Cover the beets with water and bring to a boil until tender. I’d use them in soup mostly, pureed in baked goods too.
how long will they last. I moved into a house where there were bottles of beets honey lots of stuff. Is it any good. Vern
I wouldn’t eat canned beets if I didn’t know how they were canned. The chance of botulism is high if they are canned improperly. It’s a shame to waste food, I know, but I wouldn’t chance it. That said, the USDA recommends eating up all home canned goods within 1 year.
Hi Kathie,
Another way to preserve beetroot is to boil, peel and slice them then make a raspberry jelly with half water and half vinegar. Put sliced beets in clean sterilised jars and cover with the jelly then leave to set. This sweet and sour beet will keep for years.
Do we Just google raspberry jelly and substitute the liquid called for with half water, half vinegar?
Is there a way to test for botulism? I have never had a problem, but it does make me paranoid when I hear of it.
Just wondering.
There’s not one a person can do at home – at least not that I know of or have ever read about anywhere.
Great information and beneficial for sharing
We have just harvested a few Beetroot’s as we think they ready if they are how long can you keep them for in there natural state before I decide to boil them or pickle etc etc
Wendy
They’ll last a pretty long time if kept cool and dry. Likely several weeks or even longer.
I would love to freeze my beets and am wondering if later, when thawed can they be added to a roasted vegetable medley and will they be nearly as good as freshly roasted beets?
The texture is likely to be odd for roasting especially compared to fresh roasted beets.
Rather than boiling to remove the skin, can I peel and dice in to cubes, then boil cubes for a 5-10 min to heat them, and pressure can like that? I hate the boil and slip the skins off methods :(
Sadly no. The peels must be removed prior to canning (this is true for all root veggies – the chance for botulism is high).
Or just pressure cook them instead of boiling.
Ohh – ha. I still haven’t delved into the world of pressure cooking, thanks for the tip!
if you don’t like to bol you can microwave covered for about 20 min. than peel it keeps from loosing vit. to the boiling method
To be sure, can I peel and dice, then boil before freezing? It takes longer for while beets to cook, and intend to dice them to freeze anyway. This just means I’m not playing with ice baths to peel, just to stop the cooking process
I can’t see why not.
They are wonderful cut in your french fry cutter.
Then freeze and use in salads with cranberries and walnuts. Raspberry walnut dressing anyone?
Can you hot water bath your beet root jam, as in berry jams, or does it have to be pressure canned.
I would look for a tested and approved recipe. You like can water bath a beetroot jam but it’s going to need a significant amount of added acid (like vinegar and/or sugar) to make it safe.