A Better Way To Roast Beets?

While roasting beets for Valentine's Day-appropriate pink pasta, we tried something a little different from our usual wrap-in-foil technique, and it resulted in especially succulent tasting, easy-to-peel beets…

We usually roast beets wrapped in aluminum foil, and that technique works very well. However, this time we followed a Martha Stewart recipe, which called for wrapping the beets tightly in a parchment-lined piece of foil. It's possible to buy manufactured parchment-lined foil (in fact, Martha has her own brand), but we used separate sheets of foil and (unbleached, silicone-free) parchment paper.

Upon unwrapping the roasted beets, it was clear that the parchment had held in more moisture. The beets didn't stick or develop caramelized spots as they often do when we use foil only, and they were very easy to peel. The result was a smoother surface on the beets – not really necessary since we were pureeing them, but this could be an advantage when presentation matters, like composed salads and stacks.

We probably won't use this method on every occasion (it does seem slightly wasteful), but the outcome was noteworthy.

Do you have any beet roasting tips to share?

(Image: Emily Ho)

Comments (4)

I like to roast beets in a cast iron pan with a little bit of water in the bottom of the pan. I usually make a parchment cartouche (this time I didn't have any parchment, so I made one out of a paper bag which worked just fine!) place it down and then tightly cover the pan with foil. The beets sweat inside and when they are ready, the skin practically falls off with no damage to the beets at all. Faster and less waste, because you don't have to individually wrap the beets!

I honestly don't have any of these issues you talked about when roasting using a bit of olive oil and aluminum foil. This looks like it's trying to fix a problem that really doesn't exist. I also am not wasting a sheet of parchment paper each time I roast beets!

Thanks for the recipe!
This looks just wonderful I made it and it was SO good! absolutely incredible

I've roasted beets in an oven-safe Pyrex bowl, and just covered that with aluminum foil. I wonder if using a small dutch oven, or something with a heavy/well-fitting lid would be a good option? Agreed that any of these foil or parchment paper methods seem pretty wasteful, especially if you love beets!