How To Cook Beets In The Instant Pot

Why This Beets In Instant Pot Recipe Works

• Less Mess. If youre wondering how to cook beets without making a huge mess, this is it! We know they stain, theres no way around that, but cooking them in an Instant Pot contains it.
• Budget Friendly. This recipe makes a lot at once, which is great for batch cooking and meal prep which we all know is a huge money saver.
• Delicious! Beets are just generally a beautiful and great tasting side dish no matter how theyre prepared.
• Quick and easy. Beets take a long time to cook on the stovetop. The pressure cooker does this in a fraction of the time.
• Healthy. The health benefits of this hearty vegetable are made even more abundant with the help of the Instant Pot. They never touch the boiling water which means as much of the nutrients as possible are contained.
• Freezer-friendly. Make lots, freeze the rest. It makes things even easier down the road when you have them already cooked!

Easy Instant Pot Beets

Beets are a healthy, naturally gluten-free whole food whose natural sugars are brought out when cooked which makes them one of the sweetest and best-tasting root veggies out there! I love beets. I could eat them roasted, boiled, pickled, you name it. I love to purée them for desserts, to toss them in smoothies, or dehydrate or bake them into chips. My all-time favourite way to eat beets is in borscht, the best, most delicious soup.

How To Boil Beets On The Stovetop

Wondering how long to boil beets? Boiled beats cook faster than steamed beets. Fair warning though, you will likely have more of a red, stained cooking liquid to deal with.

To reduce the red liquid mess, try leaving the beets intact, including much of their tails.

• Scrub the beets and place them into a saucepan.
• Cover with water, allowing the water to cover the beets fully, ensuring an additional 2 inches of water above the beets.
• Partially cover with a lid, leaving it slightly off the pot to allow steam to escape.
• Boil for about 20-25 minutes until the beets are tender.
• Whole beets will take closer to 34-45 minutes to cook fully.

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How To Cook Beets In Instant Pot

How To Steam Beets On The Stovetop

Steaming may preserve more nutrients than boiling when cooking beets. When you boil beets on the stovetop, especially if you slice them in half for faster cooking, a lot of the nutrients–and the color–will leach into the water.

I find the cooking pot a lot easier to clean when I steam beets rather than boiling beets. They sometimes take a little longer to cook than do boiled beets though.

• Place two cups of water in a large pan.
• Place a silicone steamer basket or steamer rackinto the pan. Ensure the water is below the basket.
• Scrub the beets well. Cut the beets in half for faster steaming, and place them on the rack.
• Partially cover the pot with a lid, leaving it slightly off the pot to allow steam to escape.
• Steam for about 30 minutes until the beets are tender.
• Whole beets will take closer to 45-50 minutes to cook fully.

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What Are The Benefits Of Cooking Your Own Beets

Yes, it might seem more convenient to buy pre-cooked beets that come in a can or a jar, but why would you do that when you can purchase fresh, local, organic beets from the market and cook them yourself. Fresh beets will have more nutrition, no additives or preservatives plus, buying fresh beets means you will be supporting your local farmers and use less packaging. Its a total win!

And while cooking beets on the stovetop might seem like a lengthy affair, using the Instant Pot will speed up the process and lock in more nutrients in the finished beets as none of them will end up in the cooking water. Instant Pot allows you to steam the beets much quicker.

Serving Recommendations For Steamed Beets

• Salad: I absolutely adore a beet salad with arugula and feta. My goodness, so simple and yet delicious!
• Side dish: You can always serve pressure cooker beets as a side dish with a drizzle of good quality extra virgin olive oil or toasted sesame oil, a sprinkle of coarse salt and freshly cracked pepper. Thats how we ate them in Ukraine. Or stir in fresh garlic. Come on, garlic makes everything better in a world of a Ukrainian.:)
• Quickly marinated : Cook, chop and toss beets in 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar and grated garlic clove. Beets can be refrigerated like this in airtight container for up to 10 days. Then toss with a handful of toasted pine nuts in a skillet and fresh dill. Beets with goat cheese and pine nuts is a variation on this!
• Snack: Make a creamy hummus and serve with raw veggies and crackers for dipping.
• Dessert: Beets can be used in desserts, much like zucchini is used in these zucchini brownies. They add flavour, moisture and colour to things like cookies, brownies, cakes, and more!
• Beet greens: Once youre done using up your steamed beets, dont forget to use those greens! They are slightly bitter along the same lines as kale, chard, or collard greens so youll want to sauté them in a bit of oil with a simple salt and pepper seasoning. A little minced garlic and red pepper flakes for heat. Squirt a little lemon juice on it and youve got a quick and easy super healthy side dish to your side dish!

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Instant Pot Beets / How To Cook Beets In Pressure Cooker

Published Updated February 16, 2021 By Meeta Arora | This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Make these healthy and delicious beets in the instant pot. This foolproof no-fail method to make beets in the pressure cooker is so easy and takes half the time as the oven, and gives your tender, flavorful beets every time. Eat these beets plain as a side, or as a salad.

Beets are so flavorful and healthy. We will cook Beets in the Pressure Cooker or Instant Pot. Usually beets take very long to cook, however they are a breeze in the pressure cooker.

I love beets, especially after knowing their nutritional value. Also, how can one not love the bright colors? Red is my favorite color. My husband on the other hand, is not a big fan of beets. But guess what? I mostly do the cooking, so I get to choose what we eat To his credit, he never frowns on anything that is on the table. In fact I think he completely relishes any new dishes I try.

I have been using Imperfect produce a lot lately and they always have beets in the box. So I am cooking beets more regularly now. I also love to roast beets in the air fryer to get the perfect crispy texture.

If you are looking for other steamed vegetables recipes, check out my detailed guide – How to steam vegetables in the Instant Pot.

Instant Pot Beets Time

Learn how to cook beets in Instant Pot with the below time sheet.

Youll get fork tender perfectly cooked beets every single time.

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How To Remove Beets Stains

We found that if we wash our hands, towels, or chopping board with tap water immediately after handling the beets, the red coloring washes off fairly easily. But when we let it sit too long, the blood-red stains can be a little scary on your fingers.

But dont worry! Lemon juice or baking soda will work their magic in removing the beet juice stains.

What To Do With Pressure Cooker Beets

Cooked instant pot beets bring endless possibilities.

• You can slice them for snacking.
• Chop them for salads, smoothies, and juices.
• Spiralize them into noodles for a side dish.
• Use them for recipes such as this appetizer pickled beets and goat cheese tartlets.
• You can use them to color pasta

No matter what you decide to do with these instant pot beets, you will wind up with the perfect dish!

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Steamed Beets Instant Pot

Cooking whole beets in Instant Pot have never been this easy until we nailed the perfect cooking time that never fails to reward us with fork tender delicious juicy beets.

So yum, so good and so healthy!

These Instant Pot Beets are so versatile. You can make a storm of dishes from steamed beets and never get bored.

For instance, imagine pickled beets, beet hummus, a simple beet salad, smoothies etc.

Instant Pot Steamed Whole Beets

For an easy recipe to steam whole beets, use an Instant Pot or electric pressure cooker. Cooking beets in the Instant Pot is a quick way to enjoy them and saves on heating up the oven for a long time to roast them the traditional method. When beets are in season, typically spring and early summer for the more tender and small beets, I cannot get enough of them. This recipe will give you sweet and tender cooked beets every time.

This recipe also yields the best way to remove the skin off of those whole cooked beets. The Instant Pot steams them so well that peeling the cooked beets is easy and not messy. Whether you like golden, red or those with multiple colored rings like the Chiogga Guardsmark, cooking them in the Instant Pot is the way to go. To learn about more varieties of beets, check out TYPES OF BEETS.

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Time Chart For Cooking Beets In Pressure Cooker

Beets can vary greatly in size, so pay close attention to this chart below to make sure you cook them to a nice tender consistency.

Beet Circumference Time

• Less than 5 HIGH PRESSURE 11 13 minutes, quick release
• 5 6 HIGH PRESSURE 13 20 minutes, quick release
• 6 7 HIGH PRESSURE 20 27 minutes, quick release
• 7.5 and more HIGH PRESSURE 28 35 minutes, quick release

How Long To Cook Beets In The Instant Pot

For soft

• Small beets: 15 minutes, 10 minutes natural pressure release, then quick release.
• Medium beets: 20 minutes, 10 minutes natural pressure release, then quick release.
• Large beets: 25-30 minutes, 10 minutes natural pressure release, then quick release.

For semi-soft

• Small beets: 10 minutes, 10 minutes natural pressure release, then quick release.
• Medium beets: 15 minutes, 10 minutes natural pressure release, then quick release.
• Large beets: 20-25 minutes, 10 minutes natural pressure release, then quick release.

Mixed sized beets:

• 20 minutes, 10 minutes natural pressure release, then quick release.
• You can also cut the larger beets in halves and choose your cooking time accordingly.

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Instant Pot Steamed Beets

Learn how to cook fork tender and moist beets in Instant pot. You will love this easy and effortless method to cook juicy sweet beautiful colored beetroots in a jiffy.

On the surface, beetroots look hard as a rock and difficult to cook. But pressure cooking them helps retain their moisture. So, the result is tender and soft beets that you can use in multiple dishes.

It is super easy to make Instant Pot Steamed Beets. Home cooked beets taste so much better than canned / preserved store brought beets. Once you get hang of cooking it, you will never want to buy them canned again

This also is very economical and budget friendly recipe. Fresh beets are plentiful and super reasonably priced. So buy it in bulk, cook it at once and freeze them in individual portions. You will also love the money savings!

Cooked beets give any dish a little sweetness and a burst of gorgeous ruby color. Enjoy these earthy, flavorful natural candy as is, as a side or in a salad!

Instant Pot Beets Time Chart

These chart timings produce soft beets that are easily pierced with a knife. For beets that are more crisp-tender, reduce cooking time by 5 minutes. Cook the beets on high pressure followed by a quick pressure release.

• Very small beets 15 minutes
• Small beets 20 minutes
• Medium beets 25 minutes
• Medium-large beets 30 minutes
• Largebeets 35 minutes
• Extra Largebeets 40 minutes

Want to cook the beets even faster? You can cut beets in half to reduce the cooking time and base their cooking time on their new diameter.

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How To Make Instant Pot Beets

Heres our method for how to make beets in an Instant Pot. As youll see, theres a bit of variation based on the size of the beets. Youll need to estimate the timing, and then adjust as necessary. It makes for perfectly cooked, tender beets in just 30 minutes. Though the Instant Pot doesnt always cook things faster, in this case pressure cooker beets are half the time of roasting in the oven.

An Easy And Delicious Way To Cook Beets

Beets! Yall I love me some beets! I grew up eating them. My mom had a huge garden and would can them all the time.

I can still remember my brother and I fighting over who would get the last bite. Now, that is a smart mom. She got her kids to fight over vegetables. #momgoals

Honestly though, they are a good entry level vegetable because they are already kinda sweet. In fact Ive been giving these to Maddie and she absolutely loves them, went through 3 slices herself!

This notorious vegetable is known for its red hue. Some people use it as a dye. My friend even uses to color her homemade chapstick.

When I was looking through the most asked questions about beets on google, here is what came up.

It was pretty funny to see how many different ways people ask about bowel movements and what they look like after eating beets. haha People were very curious.

Ok. Moving on.

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How To Cook Beets In An Instant Pot

The instant pot makes it so easy to cook beets! You can do so many things with cooked beets or just eat them on their own. Just cook, peel, and eat!

The best thing about cooking beets in an instant pot? The peels basically slide right off once theyre done. Theres no prep work required just rinse and put em in the pot and cook. The end result: perfectly cooked, fork-tender beets!

I just love beets! I mean, the name of my blog IS my heart beets after all. Whenever I eat beets, I always wonder why I dont share more beet recipes on my blog. The truth is though I love eating beets as they are plain and sometimes with a bit of salt, pepper, and olive oil. Every now and then a drizzle of balsamic. Thats it. So tasty!

Beets are so beautiful. They look like jewels, dont they? I love all of their colors: red, gold, striped . And the flavor?! YUM. I know some people dont love the earthy flavor of beets, but I do theyre so sweet and well, earthy.

Recipes Using Instant Pot Cooked Beets

Lovely and sweet, beets pair well with sea salt to enhance their flavor as well as lemon juice or vinegar. They go well with sharp aromatics like garlic, onions and ginger and warm, earthy spices like cinnamon and cumin.

Because they are soft and sweet, beets work well with salty ingredients like feta, goats cheese and bacon and crunchy foods like nuts and seeds. Goats cheese, beets and walnut salad anyone?

Here are some tasty ways to use up Instant Pot cooked beets:

• Serve drizzled with olive oil, balsamic and sea salt as a simple side dish.
• Puree cooked beets with nuts, prunes and garlic for a gorgeous beet dip.
• Slice or chop and use in salads and buddha bowls.
• Add to smoothies.

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