Balsamic Roasted Beets
These Balsamic Roasted Beets are proof that magic can come from even the simplest ingredients. Jewel-toned beets get earthy and nutty after a trip through the oven, and are topped with an effortless tangy-sweet glaze that feels downright fancy with almost no effort. Watch as this dish wins over the biggest beet haters!
🔍 Recipe At-A-Glance: Balsamic Roasted Beets
- 🕰️ Prep Time: 15 minutes
- ⏰ Cook Time: 1 hour
- 💛 Flavor Profile: Earthy and nutty, with an enhanced sweet-tart flavor from the balsamic glaze.
- 🍽️ Good For: As an easy vegetable side for holidays and weekend dinners. Also good for converting even the staunchest beet haters.
- 💪🏻 Why It's Healthy: Beets are a great source of fiber, folate, vitamins, and minerals.
- 🧡 Difficulty: The hardest part of this recipe is getting the beet juice off your hands (wear gloves!).
"This was easy to prepare, required only a few ingredients and were very good. I was afraid that they may not have cooked through, but they sliced easily. Thanks for the recipe."
- PEGGY -
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🧡 Why You'll Love This Recipe
Hey friend: Ever cracked open and tried to cook a can of beets off the store shelf? They barely even resemble the sweet, nutty taste of high-quality fresh beets. And if you're already on the fence about beets, then eating them out of the can is going to give you a hefty shove onto the "no thank you" side. That's why I'm recommending you roast fresh beets instead-that's how I got won over!
Here's why you'll love this recipe:
- Converting beet haters, left and right: I used to be such a beet hater. I loathed beets so much, I couldn't even stand to be in the same room while they were cooking! But now that I've learned how to roast beets in the oven and ditched the canned beets (with the exception of pickled beets, which I love!), these roasted beets have become a staple in our diet. I think they will become a staple in yours, too!
- Easy weekend side: Roasting beets is easy work, but it isn't fast-so this probably isn't a recipe for your rushed Tuesday evening dinner. Save it for a Sunday afternoon supper. I recommend serving them up with a perfectly roasted chicken, slow cooker honey glazed ham, or Instant Pot pork shoulder roast, my crockpot mashed potatoes recipe, and some biscuits. And then invite me over-I'll bring wine.
💛 The Ingredients You Need
- Red beets: I try not to be much of a food snob, but beets are one of those veggies that I'll only eat if they are super high-quality (preferably locally grown). In my opinion, you can really tell a difference!
- Golden beets: I think what makes this dish such a good one to help convert beet haters is the use of golden beets. Golden beets are becoming increasingly easier to find (we can get them at our local supermarket), and they still have a lot of beet-y flavor, but less of the earthy taste that turns a lot of folks off from beets. They are very sweet, and I think they look absolutely beautiful mixed in with the deep scarlet beets.
- Honey or maple syrup: The sweetness of the glaze comes from honey or maple syrup. Opt for maple syrup if you want this dish to be vegan!
Make sure to check the recipe card below for the full ingredients list, along with quantities and my expert tips and tricks.
🔁 Variations & Substitutions
- Add fresh herbs: Add some sprigs of thyme or rosemary to the balsamic mixture before you reduce it into a glaze for even more flavor. Just fish out the herbs before you glaze the beets!
- Serve with goat cheese: Still not sold on beets? Add some creamy goat cheese to the platter before serving-you won't regret it!
🥣 Balsamic Glazed Beets How-To
Step 1: Trim the top off each beet and give it a good scrub, then wrap it in aluminum foil. You'll get the best results from wrapping each beet individually!
Bake at 350°F for 50-60 minutes.
Step 2: Now the beets need to cool until you can handle them without scorching your hands. While you wait for them to cool, heat the vinegar, sweetener, salt, and pepper over medium-high heat. Let it bubble, then reduce the heat to a simmer until the glaze is reduced. It will look thick and bubbly when it is ready, after about 3 minutes of simmering.
Step 3: Peel the beets. After roasting, this should be easy enough to do by just rubbing the veggies with clean hands, but you can also use a vegetable peeler. Either way, if you don't want to look like you just committed some sort of crime, you might want gloves!
Step 4: Slice the beets into rounds, and arrange them all pretty on a platter. Drizzle with the balsamic glaze and serve!
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🙋🏻♀️ Balsamic Glazed Beets FAQs
Nope, and it is actually way easier if you don't! Once beets are cooked all the way through, the peels should slip right off with a little friction.
Foil will do the best job of keeping the beets soft, tender, and ready to glaze. But there are definitely methods out there for roasting beets in parchment paper or in a covered dish-the key is to trap some of the moisture as the beets cook so they end up soft instead of crispy!
👩🏻🍳 My Expert Tips & Tricks
- Save the tops: Don't you dare throw out those beet tops! Beet greens are 100% edible and super delicious. They have a mild beet flavor, and work well anywhere you'd use other leafy greens like kale or chard.
- Wear gloves: A word of warning, you might be surprised by how much those red beets will stain your digits, so if you don't want to walk around the next day with red hands, you might be inclined to wear a pair of gloves while working with the beets.
- Low and slow: Typically, you'd roast vegetables at a much higher temperature. But because you want these beets to stay nice and tender, and you're cooking them whole, low and slow is the way to go. Wrapping them in foil and roasting at 350°F for an hour should do the trick.
🍲 More Easy Vegetable Side Recipes:
If you tried this balsamic glazed beets or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments!
📖 Recipe
Balsamic Roasted Beets Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 medium-sized golden beets tops removed
- 3 medium-sized red beets tops removed
- ½ cup balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Scrub outside of beets, and then wrap each beet in aluminum foil. Place foil-wrapped beets on a baking sheet, and bake in preheated oven for 50-60 minutes, or until the beets are soft when pierced with a fork.
- Remove beets from oven and let cool until cool enough to handle-about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the vinegar, honey or maple syrup, salt, and pepper in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until thick and bubbly-about 3 minutes.
- Using clean hands, rub off the peels of the beets, or alternatively, use a sharp vegetable peeler to peel off the peels. Slice the peeled beets into ¼" rounds. Layer rounds on a platter, and then drizzle with the glaze before serving. Season with additional salt and pepper, if desired.
Video
Notes
- Use maple syrup in place of honey to keep this recipe vegan.
- Wear gloves if you don't want your hands to be stained red from peeling the beets!
- Keep the beet tops to use anywhere you'd use other leafy greens.
- If the beets aren't easily pierced with the forks or it doesn't seem like the peels will come off easily, put them back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes and check again.
This is the only way I ever cook beets anymore. We love to add a little goat cheese to them!
Looks delicious!
Can I prepare beets and sauce in advance and then pour on before serving and serve at room temp? Making for a luncheon-- Thank you!
I think that would work!
Can you keep this dish in the refrigerator? If so, for how long?
Sure can. I'd say you could get by with 5-7 days in the fridge after cooking.
Love this recipe! I did add goat cheese, which everyone loved.
Definitely needed a higher temp. Roasted at 450 for an hour. Reduction was spot on though! I wish I had some crumbled goat cheese on hand.
This was easy to prepare, required only a few ingredients and were very good. I was afraid that they may not have cooked through, but they sliced easily. Thanks for the recipe.
Keeper recipe!
Roasting the beets at 350 for an hour wasnt long enough to make them soft. I finally turned the heat to 400 and they softened up. The balsamic dressing was good. I put the beets and dressing on quinoa. I didn't like this recipe. It would have been easier to peel the the beets first, chop them, then roast them. It was such a pain trying to unwrap the foil to see if they were done.
i am making these now- thanks !
Absolutely beautiful photography to match the wonderfully simple and lovely recipe! 🙂
Stunning colours! Love roasted beets but never tried them with a balsamic reduction - thanks for the idea 🙂
Good thing I have all the ingredients on hand to make these roasted balsamic beets. Thanks for the idea, they definitely will be appearing on my dinner table tonight!