Do you need to peel beets before cooking? Let’s learn how to cook them using life hacks from experienced housewives
You can prepare many delicious dishes from beets. Among the traditional and everyone’s favorites are borscht and herring “under a fur coat.” However, many housewives do not know how to properly handle this root vegetable. If you cook it, do you need to peel the beets before cooking? We have learned the tricks of preparing this vegetable and are ready to share them.
To clean before cooking or not
If you peel the beets before cooking them, then after cooking you will find a pale, unsightly brownish-brown root vegetable in the pan.. All the bright burgundy color from the peeled vegetable will disappear.
Therefore, the housewives came to the conclusion: under no circumstances should the root vegetable be peeled before cooking! This will keep it beautiful and useful..
It can be useful:
Life hacks when working with beets
There are tricks when cooking beets, making the housewife's work easier. Let's look at everything in order.
How to cook
We have already found out that Do not peel raw beets before cooking.
It is enough to wash it thoroughly.
Neither the top nor the spine is cut off, the integrity of the surface is not violated.
Place the vegetable in boiling water in a pan and cook for 50-60 minutes.
Attention! Depending on the size, age and variety, beets can be cooked from 30 minutes to 2-3 hours.
You can use a pressure cooker. In this case, the cooking time will decrease (on average 10-15 minutes). You can also boil beets in a slow cooker.Usually, a special mode is provided for cooking vegetables in a multicooker (for example, “Cooking vegetables”). Cooking duration is according to the instructions for the device.
To preserve color, vinegar (6-9%) is added to the water. - for every 2 liters of water, 1-2 teaspoons of vinegar and 1 teaspoon of sugar.
Important! The root vegetable is not boiled in salted water. If you add salt, the beets will become less tasty. Add salt after cooking.
As a rule, beets take a long time to cook in a saucepan. To speed up the process, after 30-45 minutes, remove it from the stove and place it under very cold water. (ice) water for 3-5 minutes.
Note. Surprisingly, beets are “cooked” in cold water. It's all about the temperature difference. He brings the root vegetable to readiness.
How to bake
For preparing vinaigrettes or salads, baked rather than boiled beets are more suitable. It is believed that with this method of preparation, all nitrates are removed from the root vegetable.
You can bake a vegetable:
in the oven. A clean root vegetable is wrapped in food foil and baked at a temperature of 150-160 degrees for an hour;- in the microwave. The whole washed beets are placed in a baking bag. The oven is turned on at 800 watts for 10-12 minutes. After time, the root vegetable will be ready. Cooking time may vary depending on the size of the vegetable. If you don't have a baking bag in your kitchen, you can cook the beets on a glass plate covered with a lid or other plate. The baking time then increases by 5 minutes. To prevent the product from turning out dry, you can pour 0.5 cups of warm water onto the plate.
Attention! When baking, housewives recommend using a toothpick to make holes in the bag for steam to escape.
Check the readiness of the product with a fork. The fork enters and exits the finished root vegetable without effort.
How to clean
How to quickly peel boiled beets? The peel comes off quite easily from the finished root vegetable.. Just scrape the top with a knife and it will come off easily.
The main advice that experienced housewives give — Wear gloves when peeling and cutting beets. If you do not protect the skin of your hands, it will stain your hands a bright burgundy beet color. It will be difficult to get rid of it later.
Attention! When cleaning vegetables, disposable polyethylene, latex or rubber gloves are suitable.
Tips for choosing beets for cooking
How to choose the right root vegetables for cooking? The beets should be:
- hard;
- dark burgundy color;
- medium size;
- a variety suitable for cooking (for example, Cylinder or Bordeaux);
- there should be no cracks or damage on the surface.
It will be interesting:
How to cook delicious crispy lightly salted zucchini
Let's sum it up
If you are planning to boil or bake beets, remember: you do not need to peel them. Rinse well enough. To reduce cooking time, housewives advise “finishing” it under running cold water at the end of cooking. In addition to traditional cooking in a saucepan, you can use a double boiler or pressure cooker.
For salads or vinaigrettes, it is preferable not to boil the root vegetable, but to bake it. This can be done in the oven (in foil) or in the microwave (in a baking bag). Have some unusual dishes and bon appetit!