While I love root veggies, they can take a long time to cook. Plus, my oven lets off a lot of heat, making me hesitant to use it to cook for long periods of time, especially in the summer months. Beets, which are particularly hard, are no exception! To make matters worse, beets are crazy messy and tend to leave stains all over your kitchen (and you!). But cooking them in the Instant Pot is a great way to reduce the mess and time. You can eat beets on their own or as a side, or add them to another dish or salad! My favorite way to enjoy them is cooled, chopped up, topped with feta and pumpkin seeds, and drizzled with balsamic vinegar.
Looking to try other root vegetables in your pressure cooker? Try our Instant Pot Hack: How to Cook Sweet Potatoes, Instant Pot Hack: How to Cook Butternut Squash, or Instant Pot Hack: How to Cook Spaghetti Squash!
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The first thing you need to do is cut the stems and leaves off and discard them. If you buy fresh beets, they’re likely to be filthy, so fill up your kitchen sink and give them a good clean, scrubbing them with a hard bristled brush if you have one to release all the dirt. No need to dry them! They’re going right into the pot.
Add one and a half cups of water to the Instant Pot, followed by the trivet. Stack the beets on top of the trivet, keeping them out of the liquid. You can fill up the Instant Pot and cook as few or as many beets as you want, as long as the lid still closes and seals. We fit 6 small to medium sized beets in our 6-quart Instant Pot Duo, but it was definitely full.
Lid the pot and cook on Pressure Cook (or “Manual” if you have an older model) HIGH for 12 minutes. If you want really soft beets, feel free to bump up the time to 14 minutes. However, we found ours were the perfect texture (cooked but sliceable; not mushy), especially to use in a beet salad.
Once the cook time has elapsed, quick release the pressure and unlid the pot. Remove the beets with tongs and drain the water. Be careful – the inner pot and beets will be extremely hot, so don’t burn yourself!
It’s time to peel the beets! The best part of using your Instant Pot to cook them is that the skin peels off with such ease, making them less messy than traditional cooking methods. Allow them to cool for a few minutes before peeling the skin off in sheets. Feel free to use gloves if you’re worried about staining, but we found that the juice washed right off our hands once they were cooked!
Once they’re peeled, cut off the ends of beets and chop into whatever size you need for your dish. Again, you can use gloves for this part but we didn’t need to. To keep from staining your cutting board, we suggest using a plastic (not wood!) one and laying down a few layers of paper towel or an old, clean, dark towel before putting the beets down and chopping them up.
They’re ready to eat! Serve them up however you want and enjoy all the health benefits they have to offer! Not convinced they’re worth the work? Check out our reasons Why You Should Be Eating Beets! Enjoy!
