Yes, you CAN freeze beets – and after thawing these roasted beets taste just like you cooked them fresh! They are perfect for salads, sides, and other recipes. Freezing beets is a great storage solution for when you have a lot to take care of at once.
For some reason beets seem to be a pretty divisive vegetable- you either like them or you think they taste like “dirt.”
Personally, I dont get it. I mean, beets are so sweet you can buy beet sugar.*
*Note: I know that sugar beets are white and different from what we eat. What I mean is that there is enough natural sugar in beets (similar to corn, too) that scientists could create beet varieties that produce more.
But Im the lone beet-liker (beet-liker? Well, you know what I mean…) in my family. The kids wont touch them and Brian merely puts up with them.
So I dont serve them very often and I dont grow a ton of them in our garden, just a couple of rows for me.
Most of the beets are all ready to be harvested at once. I have problem of too many beets for just me but then none for the future.
Cooked whole beets, as opposed to cooked diced beets, are especially suitable for freezing. They thaw well and can be cut up into your desired shape and size after thawing. Here’s how to freeze cooked whole beets: Trim the roots, stems, and leaves and clean them.
Can beets be frozen successfully?
Pickling seems to be the most popular way to preserve beets, but my few small rows never made enough to pickle, so I decided to try freezing some that I had oven roasted–even though I had never heard or read of it being done.
I roasted them in the oven, in their skins to preserve moisture, then chopped and added them to freezer baggies in small portions.
Surprisingly, the beets tasted just as good after a couple months in the freezer as they did the day I roasted them.
So I made my favorite salad with them, Roasted Beet Salad with Goat Cheese, and served it to company.
Um, didnt I just say beets are divisive…and I served a salad with beets to company?
I guess I didnt get it- but in my defense, I thought I was safe because our company were gardeners, and dont most gardeners grow beets?
Well, not the one sitting at my table. He promptly said, “Beets are the one vegetable I dont eat” and proceeded to give me the dirt comparison.
Great – of all the vegetables on the planet I pick the one he didnt eat.
Of course I said he didnt have to eat them, but he decided to try them anyway. The verdict?
Whatever that means, ha! Ill take the vote of confidence anyway.
Now I make sure to grow enough rows to be able to freeze beets in small packages to last me through the winter.
Though I only serve them to people I know will enjoy them – I dont want to waste them.
How to Prepare, Oven Roast and Freeze Beets
Im providing a step-by-step tutorial to prepare, cook, and freeze beets because I didnt know how to prepare them when I first started growing beets and Im pretty sure that there are people out there who may be as clueless as I was.
Of course, this is just one method for cooking beets, but many of these steps are the same no matter how you decide cook them.
1. Wash the beets thoroughly with a vegetable brush in order to get all the dirt off. (Speaking of dirt, one of the reasons I dont get the dirt comment about beets is because there are lots of other vegetables like carrots and potatoes that grow in the dirt too, and they arent described that way…).
2. Trim the greens off, leaving about an inch of the tops. Trim the roots as well.
3. Place the beets in a shallow baking dish and pour in about 1/4 cup of water.
I suppose this isnt true “roasting” like when we toss vegetables with olive oil (which you can do with beets, by the way… they get nice crispy edges which is great for that application, but not what I want on a salad…), but its like roasting meat, I guess.
Or is it oven braising? Well just stick with roasting for now.
4. Cover well with foil and bake at 400 degrees for up to an hour, depending on the size of the beets.
5. Check doneness by inserting a small knife into the thickest parts of the beets.
The beets pictured were fairly large so I cut them in half to speed the cooking time (small to medium beets can be left whole). They were done in about 45 minutes.
6. Let cool until you can comfortably handle them.
7. Cut the rest of the tops and bottoms off and skin the beets by pulling with a small knife.
Some directions say to put gloves on and “rub the skins off” but that hasnt worked well for me, but you do what works for you. And I dont wear gloves- I just wash my hands afterwards and dont have a problem with staining.
8. Cut the beets into chunks or slices- however you want to serve them later. I like chunks that are easy to add to a salad.
9. Place them in a freezer container, label, and freeze.
I remove the air from my freezer baggies with a straw and it keeps most of the frost out of the packages.
Try to use the frozen beets within 6-9 months for best flavor.
One time, though, a few baggies got shoved in the back of my freezer and I found them a year later. I served them anyway and was shocked that they were still pretty tasty.
However, a baggie I found after 1-1/2 years didnt fare as well and the beets were shriveled and soggy.
Of course this was before I had the chalkboard freezer organizer which helps me keep better track of what we have for planning menus and using up food.
Yes, but they will not be as convenient as already cooked. Cut the raw peeled beets into small dices, transfer them into a freezer bag, label and freeze. Any beet variety can be frozen like this. If youd like grated beets, you can freeze them raw – grate and lay out on a cookie sheet to flash freeze before transferring to freezer containers.
Yes, if the beets are peeled and cut into smaller pieces first (or grated like above).
It depends on how you want to use them – grated raw or diced beets are good for using raw in salads or adding to soups. Roasted beets can be used to top salads or heated as a side dish with butter that only has to be thawed and warmed.
Beets store in the freezer about 12-18 months.
The Best Way to Freeze Beets : Managing Your Kitchen
FAQ
Is it better to freeze beets raw or cooked?
How do you prepare beets for freezing?
What is the best way to store cooked beets?
Does freezing beets change the texture?